Hong Kong police reveal small rise in variety of on-line scams, however quantities swindled up 37% – Cyber Tech

A police insider stated the upper losses could possibly be partly attributed to 2 separate deepfake scams that have been nonetheless beneath investigation.

Criminals used synthetic intelligence (AI) to change voices and faces and fooled staff at two UK-based multinational corporations within the metropolis into transferring HK$204 million to them.

London-based design and engineering agency Arup misplaced HK$200 million after one in every of its Hong Kong staff was taken in by a digitally recreated model of the agency’s chief monetary officer in January.

Police first seen deepfakes final 12 months once they arrested 9 folks in a crackdown on a fraud syndicate that used AI expertise to physician pictures for mortgage scams focusing on moneylenders. The investigation concerned HK$200,000 in stolen funds.

Secretary for Safety Chris Tang Ping-keung earlier revealed that police had found 21 on-line video clips from final November to Could the place AI expertise was used to impersonate authorities officers or celebrities to advertise questionable funding merchandise.

He stated the movies had been faraway from on-line platforms and no reviews had been obtained of the general public being defrauded straight on account of the deepfake movies.

The scams that recorded the best losses from January to Could have been sham funding offers, which duped 1,503 folks out of HK$915 million.

There have been 1,243 victims tricked out of a complete of HK$624 million in the identical interval final 12 months.

The supply stated this 12 months’s figures highlighted the continued risk from funding scams that preyed on Hongkongers’ hopes of constructing simple cash.

He warned the general public to be cautious of “unrealistic guarantees of excessive returns with low dangers”.

“Scammers are nonetheless sending textual content messages to the general public and alluring them to hitch VIP discussion groups, the place they impersonate funding consultants or fund managers to deceive victims into buying shares or cryptocurrency on bogus buying and selling platforms,” he stated.

The supply added the ruse had been round for a number of years and that con artists had additionally impersonated celebrities and influencers to cheat folks.

The drive warned on its web site that, in one other kind of tactic often called “pig-butchering scams”, “scammers set up a web based romantic relationship to achieve the belief of the victims then lure them into investing”.

“Watch out for the funding initiatives beneficial by the right males or ladies you meet on-line,” it stated.

Police figures confirmed that web procuring scams noticed losses leap 73 per cent to HK$133 million regardless of a rise of simply seven instances to 4,175 within the first 5 months of the 12 months.

However the quantities misplaced in employment, romance and e mail scams dropped.

Though Could recorded the very best variety of on-line employment scams in a month, at 348, the general variety of such fraud instances fell 38 per cent to 1,118. Losses from these scams additionally fell 31 per cent to HK$252 million.

The variety of e mail scams elevated by 39 per cent to 99, however losses dropped 24 per cent to HK$38 million.

There have been 409 reviews of on-line romance scams between January and Could this 12 months, down 28 per cent from the 574 instances logged in the identical interval final 12 months.

Criminals pocketed HK$204 million from such frauds, down 35 per cent from HK$315 million the 12 months earlier than.

A police spokesman stated that the drive “works intently with native and abroad regulation enforcement companies and actively mounts operations based mostly on intelligence gathered on-line to minimise the risk posed by web deception”.

He added police additionally collaborated with the Hong Kong Financial Authority, banks, and saved worth facility suppliers to spice up cost mechanism safety and alert customers to potential loopholes.

The spokesman stated police additionally engaged with the Workplace of the Communications Authority, cell community operators and on-line service suppliers to trade info on cyber criminals’ actions, to take down legal content material or droop scamming accounts from the web.

Police appealed to the general public to make use of the drive’s Scameter search engine, accessible by way of the CyberDefender web site or app, to verify for suspicious or fraudulent schemes.

The search engine has info that may assist folks establish suspicious internet addresses, emails, platform usernames, financial institution accounts, cell phone numbers and IP addresses.