hackingincidents.ai
Ledger / Jan 2024

Arup employee tricked by deepfake video call into $25M transfers

Confirmed

Arup confirmed it was the victim of the deepfake scam reported by Hong Kong police.

A finance employee joined a video call in which the apparent CFO and colleagues were deepfakes and followed instructions to make multiple transfers. Hong Kong police disclosed the case in Feb 2024; CNN named Arup as the victim in May 2024.

“Arup revealed as victim of $25 million deepfake scam involving Hong Kong employee”CNN Business

Sources

Date
Jan 2024
Disclosed
16 May 2024
Actor
unknown (criminal), as attributed by CNN Business
Targets
Arup (engineering), Hong Kong office
What the AI did
Deepfake, Fraud, Social engineering
Model
unspecified voice-clone/deepfake tool
Model family
Deepfake / voice
Model basis
unknown
Autonomy
assist
Outcome
About US$25M (HK$200M) sent in 15 transfers to fraudsters' accounts.