Police bust first deepfake-powered fraud case

In Hongkong, Police have busted a syndicate group that used Artificial Intellegence face-swapping techniques to trick financial institutions to lend them money. Six people were arrested. This is the first bust using such technology.  Superintendent Dicken Ko said fraudsters have used the face-swapping technique at least 20 times.

He said fraudsters tried to impersonate residents who had lost their ID cards, hoping to trick the facial recognition system and complete the online procedures. The force said dozens of attempts were made to take out loans, but only applications worth HK$200,000 were successful. Ko said the lost ID cards were also used to register phone numbers from which several thousand phishing messages were sent.