Pay up or end up in a ‘deepfake’ pornographic video: Report reveals new hacker ransom scheme

Unfortunately for the man, the report said he soon received a video showing a man with his face involved in pornographic activity, and several folks on his contacts list did, too. — Mobile photo created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com

As if there was not already enough to worry about when it comes to hackers and their ability to gain access to your information, there’s a wild story out there this week about a guy who claims his phone was hacked.

The folks responsible didn’t just steal his information, though. According to a report posted on Yahoo.com, the hackers asked the Singaporean man to pay a ransom of US$5,800 (RM25,250). If he didn’t, they threatened to send everyone on his contact list a “deepfake” pornographic video of him.

And, if you are wondering just what is “deepfake”, it is often when someone takes the image of someone’s face and uses artificial intelligence to superimpose it on someone else’s body.

And, if you are thinking that those types of videos would be easy to spot as being fakes, well, in 2022 the folks who do these types of things have gotten pretty, darned good at it. So good, in fact, that it can often be hard to tell what is real and what isn’t.

In this case, the man reportedly figured that it was all a scam, and that the person or persons trying to shake him down would not go through with the whole “deepfake” pornographic video. But, unfortunately for the man, the report said he soon received a video showing a man with his face involved in pornographic activity, and several folks on his contacts list did, too.

The man has reportedly filed a police report, and claims several of his friends have been targeted by the scam. – pennlive.com/Tribune News Service