The new face of online crimes: Deepfakes redefine cybercrime

Experts are urging increased vigilance and verification to combat deepfakes. — Image by freepik

The saying “don’t believe everything you see online” has never been more relevant due to artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfake technology.

Earlier this year, a clerk in Hong Kong was tricked into transferring HK$200mil (RM115mil) of company funds. She thought she was on a conference call with her company’s management, but the people on the call were actually deepfake creations made by scammers using publicly available videos. They deceived her into making payments to various bank accounts.