Deepfake Scam Example

A scammer was able to scam a bank out of $25M. Our new reliance on online meetings enabled it.

“…the use of deepfake technology to simulate a multi-person video conference where all participants (except the victim) were fabricated images of real individuals.” – Ars Technica

Fill a room with audio and video of trusted people, and the only real one can be convinced that they can trust the meeting. But, in this case, all of the other people were deepfakes based on content scraped from the internet. This might be one of those situations where it seems obvious in retrospect, but it has the capacity to unseat any confidence in online transactions. As if bots weren’t bad enough. Crime is always a battle between offense and defense, but this reflects a need to defend a relatively new way of running a business from an even newer way of committing crime. The size of the theft isn’t as important as the potential scope of the arena in which it can readily replicate. Ironically, this could encourage more in-person contact, more travel, and maybe even people trusting people.

“Deepfake Scammer Walks Off With $25 Million In First-of-its-kind AI Heist” – Ars Technica