Hong Kong police have intercepted more than HK$34 million (US$3.37 million) in scam money as part of an elaborate operation targeting victims through the use of artificial intelligence.
According to s report by the South China Morning Post Saturday, the investigation also sheds light on some of the new strategies being used by local romance scam operators.
Some revolved around pretending to be wealthy single women, with conversational suggestions including learning Japanese, playing golf, and tasting red wine worth more than HK$100,000 ($12,850 ) bottle, according to the report.
Strategies like those were recorded in notebooks seized by local law enforcement when officers arrested 31 people.
The arrest was part of a joint operation against a crime syndicate that used AI to generate believable images of attractive women to lure victims into romance and investment scams.
Byron Boston, a former police officer in Dallas and CEO of Crypto Track, reported Decryption “The integration of deepfake technology and social engineering scams presents significant challenges for cryptocurrency investigators and law enforcement. ”
He explained that images generated by AI make criminals more accurate and allow them to carry out more elaborate and sophisticated scams.
“For example, in November 2022, a Video deepfake imitating FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried used in a phishing scheme to target FTX users to try and drain their crypto assets,” Boston said.
He also said that social engineering scams were sad “because they often involve long efforts to build trust with victims. “
The seized notebooks also revealed that the criminal gang aimed to recruit young people who wanted to make a quick buck. They tried to convince the victims that they were artistic women in Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Boston noted that “while these advanced techniques are significant obstacles, effective cooperation, and swift action are critical to combating these criminal activities.”
However, such capabilities are still not common, and “many local law enforcement agencies in the US do not have the necessary tools and expertise to track down or engage in stolen digital currency.” recovery efforts with international exchanges,” said Boston.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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Source: https://decrypt.co/299763/hong-kong-deepfake-scam-group-caught-pretending-to-be-rich-single-women
