A finance worker was tricked into paying out NZD $42.1 million dollars after deepfake technology led the man to believe he was talking to his company's chief financial officer in a conference call.
In a briefing last week, Hong Kong Police said the worker was suspicious after receiving an email that talked of the need for a "secret transaction" to be carried out seemingly sent from the company's chief financial officer.
He did originally believe the email, and the transaction, were a scam.
However, the worker put aside his doubts after attending a video call linked in the email, as other participants looked and sounded like people he worked with. With that, he agreed to release the money.
“(In the) multi-person video conference, it turns out that everyone [he saw] was fake,” senior superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching told the city’s public broadcaster RTHK, according to CNN.
The scam was only uncovered to be fake after the worker later checked with his company's head office.
Hong Kong Police did not reveal the name of the company or the worker.
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