UK firm falls victim to whopping £20,000,000 deepfake scam
British engineering firm Arup has confirmed that it was the company at the centre of a £20 million deepfake scam earlier this year. In February, Hong Kong police reported that a finance worker had been duped into paying HK$200 million of his company’s money to fraudsters because of an elaborate deepfake video call appearing to be with his boss.
In a statement to the Financial Times, which confirmed Arup was the victim, the company confirmed fake images and voices had been used, but said: ‘Our financial stability and business operations were not affected and none of our internal systems were compromised.’
Arup’s global chief information officer, Rob Greig, said the company had seen a sharp rise in the number and sophistication of deepfakes and other scams in recent months.