In the UAE, scammers use a voice deepfake to steal $35m from a bank

In the United Arab Emirates, scammers impersonated the voice of the chief executive of a major company and persuaded a bank employee to transfer $35 million to their accounts. Forbes.

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According to a court документу, in January 2020, a branch manager at one of the bank’s offices answered a call from someone purporting to be the owner of a major company. Because the employee had previously dealt with him, he failed to recognise the voice as a deepfake.

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The scammers used forged emails on behalf of the company and its lawyer. This allowed them to persuade the bank employee that the enterprise was in the process of closing a deal worth $35m. The manager followed the caller’s instructions and transferred the funds to several designated accounts.

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According to law enforcement, the scammers used a voice-cloning program called Deep Voice. Investigators believe at least 17 people participated in the scheme, and the bank accounts to which the money was sent are spread across the globe. Two of them are open in the United States, which allowed UAE authorities to enlist American law enforcement in the investigation.

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A similar incident произошел in 2019 with a British energy company. The fraudsters managed to steal around $243,000 by impersonating the company’s director using a forged voice.

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Jake Moore, a cybersecurity expert at ESET, called deepfakes dangerous for data, money and business.

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 “We are on the cusp of criminals shifting their knowledge and resources to using the latest technologies to manipulate people who have little idea of the uses of deepfakes or even of their existence,” he added.

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In October, researchers stated that voice forgeries could fool both humans and devices with speech recognition.

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In September scammers used the deepfake of Oleg Tinkov to advertise a fake site “Tinkoff Investments.”

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In April, an expert said that the number of deepfakes online doubles every six months.

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