A finance worker at a multinational firm was tricked into paying out $25 million to fraudsters using deepfake technology to pose as the company’s chief financial officer in a video conference call, according to Hong Kong police.

Finance worker pays out $25 million after video call with deepfake ‘chief financial officer’ | CNN::A finance worker at a multinational firm was tricked into paying out $25 million to fraudsters using deepfake technology to pose as the company’s chief financial officer in a video conference call, according to Hong Kong police.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    [off topic?]

    Similar story from back in the 1980s. Reagan’s deregulation of banks lead to a Wild West atmosphere where bankers felt encouraged to take big risks. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Bush] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_loan_crisis]

    One day, a smooth looking customer walks into a Texas bank. He had on the right suit, with the proper Texas power broker Stetson hat and ostrich skin cowboy boots. He had a thick business plan in a beautiful portfolio. He told the bank VP that his company was planning a huge expansion and wanted a bank that could expedite their plans. He asked if the bank could OK a $1 million loan in one business day. The VP assured him they could, and the next morning they presented him with a check. He walked out and was never heard from again.

    • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      Thank you for the additional read. I always wondered if I could do something like that. Just for the sake of it, with research, dreasing, acting and managing the right speech\behavior patterns to calm down their alerts. I’d honestly buy a game about that, like a reverse LA Noire. I think many millenials and zoomers would love to play-pretend they aren’t themselves for a moment, see the popularity of Mafia in their generation at least in x-USSR: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game)

      • Dagwood222@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        One of the most savage takedowns of the corporate mindset in American history is a Broadway musical “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.”

        The hero’s first step to the top is to find a company that is so big that no one person has any idea of what is actually going on.

        I can think of a dozen recent cases where someone simply lied their way into a billion dollars; the cyptocurrency bank guy and the blood test lady spring to mind.

  • Null User Object@programming.devEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I’m highly doubtful that scammers could get enough real video of multiple employees in the same company to train an AI to pull this off convincingly. Celebrities, yes. Regular people, no

    However, Occam’s Razor tells me this employee knows exactly where that money went and plans to quietly slip away to a tropical island to retire, after getting fired for being “gullible.”

    • Dr. Bob@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      Insider threat. My organization archives our town halls with the President. There are hours of video available on the internal site.

      • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.clubEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        And if not that, you also have internal meetings where managers love to turn their cameras on.

        It also doesn’t have to be perfect, just good enough.