Hong Kong CNN —A British multinational design and engineering company behind world famous buildings such as the Sydney Opera House has confirmed that it was the target of a deepfake scam that led to one of its Hong Kong employees paying out $25 million to fraudsters.
A spokesperson for Arup told CNN on Friday that it notified Hong Kong police in January about the fraud incident, and confirmed that fake voices and images were used.
“Unfortunately, we can’t go into details at this stage as the incident is still the subject of an ongoing investigation.
According to Hong Kong police, the elaborate scam saw the employee duped into attending a video call with people he believed were the CFO and other members of staff, but all of whom turned out to be deepfake recreations, Hong Kong police revealed in February.
Authorities around the world are growing increasingly concerned about the sophistication of deepfake technology and the nefarious uses it can be put to.
Persons:
Hong Kong CNN —, Arup, ” Rob Greig, Michael Kwok
Organizations:
Hong Kong CNN, Sydney Opera, Hong Kong, CNN, Hong, Beijing Olympic Games, Arup’s East
Locations:
Hong Kong, British, Hong, Arup’s East Asia