British engineering firm Arup recently fell victim to a sophisticated deepfake scam, confirming that an employee transferred HK$200 million (£20 million or $25 million) to criminals. The scam involved an artificial intelligence-generated video call that imitated a senior company executive.
Deepfake scam attacks Arup
(Photo: John Schnoblich on Unsplash)
UK-based engineering firm Arup announced that one of its employees had transferred £20 million to the hackers. At the very least, an AI video call was all that was needed to pull off this deepfake scam.
In February, Hong Kong police revealed that an anonymous company had been defrauded by scammers posing as high-level executives with a hoax call. Arup later identified itself as the affected company and acknowledged the incident, which occurred earlier this year. This fraud scheme used both fake voices and images to carry out the scam.
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Impact and response
The Guardian reported that Arup assured that its financial stability and business operations were not affected by the fraud and that its internal systems were not compromised.
Rob Greig, Arup's global chief information officer, highlighted that the company faces frequent attacks, including deepfakes. He said he hopes their experience will raise awareness of the growing sophistication of cyberattacks. The Financial Times initially reported Arup as a target company.
“Like many other companies around the world, our business is exposed to regular attacks such as invoice fraud, phishing, WhatsApp voice spoofing, and deepfakes. “The number and sophistication of these attacks has increased rapidly in recent months,” he said.
Arup background and recent projects
Arup is a leading consulting engineering firm with more than 18,000 employees worldwide. The company is famous for its contributions to structural engineering, including the distinctive concrete shell of the Sydney Opera House. Arup has also been involved in high-profile projects such as London's Crossrail transport scheme and Barcelona's Sagrada Familia.
The growing threat of deepfake fraud
The Arup incident is not isolated. The Guardian recently reported that Mark Read, CEO of the world's largest advertising group WPP, was the target of a deepfake scam using an AI voice clone. Mr. Reed warned his colleagues to be wary of calls purporting to be from executives.
Survey details
Hong Kong media quoted Senior Superintendent Baron Chan as saying that Arup employees had been invited to a video conference with “a number of participants” who appeared to be genuine. This resulted in the employee transferring a total of HK$200 million to his five local bank accounts in 15 transactions.
ongoing investigation
Hong Kong police confirmed the fraud, detailing that the employee received a video call from an individual posing as an executive instructing him to transfer money to a specific bank account. No arrests have been made yet, but the investigation is continuing and the case has been classified as “obtaining property by deception.”
Other recent deepfake scams
Last month, a South Korean woman was scammed out of $50,000 by a deepfake impersonating Elon Musk.
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