Beware Of Deepfake & Fake AI Videos! Here’s How Hi-Tech Romance Scams, Digital Arrests Target Victims

Bhubaneswar: At a time when online frauds are on the rise, scamsters are now using the Deepfake technology and artificial intelligence to dupe citizens. From romance scams to digital arrests, fraudsters use these technologies for impersonation, emotional manipulation, and promises of quick and high gains. Cops and cyber experts have cautioned against the scamsters using Deepfake technology to convince victims of fake identities and movies. Here’s some of their modus operandis:

Romance scam: Recently, the Hong Kong police announced the arrests of more than two dozen members of the alleged romance scam ring that targeted men from Taiwan, Singapore and India. Men had fallen prey to a romance scam that used deepfake artificial intelligence to lure its victims into parting with more than $46 million, claimed a CNN report. The scam typically begins with a text message, in which the sender – posing as an attractive woman – states that she has mistakenly added the wrong number. The scammers then strike up online romances with their victims. The scammers foster a sense of intimacy and plan a future together only to win the trust of the victims and later end up duping them.

The scammers take help of the technology to learn about the victim’s worldview and create a “tailor-made” persona using Deepfake. They also use the data gathered online to invent difficulties such as failed relationships or businesses to “deepen the other person’s trust,” reports claimed. At last, they paint a “beautiful vision” of the future, including travel plans together to compel the victim into investing online into fraudulent websites and deals.

Digital arrests: This is another latest modus operandi that has been adopted by fraudsters in India. Scammers convince victims they are under a “digital” or “virtual” arrest and the victim is coerced into staying connected with the scammer through video-conferencing. Recently, textile baron, SP Oswal revealed that he was duped of 70 million rupees ($833,000) by online scammers impersonating federal investigators and even the Chief Justice of Infdia, reports claimed.

The fraudsters posing as officers from CBI dialled Oswal, chairman and managing director of the textile manufacturer Vardhman, and accused him of money laundering, the Aljazeera reported.

For the next two days, Oswal was under digital surveillance. The scammers had ordered him to keep Skype open on his phone 24/7 during which he was quizzed and threatened with arrest. The fraudsters also conducted a fake virtual court hearing with a digital impersonation of CJI DY Chandrachud as the judge. They made Oswal pay the hefty amount after the court verdict via Skype.

Investment scams & Deepfakes of Virat Kohli and Ratan Tata: Have you come across a video of Virat Kohli, Ratan Tata or Mukhesh Ambani endorsing an investment scheme promising huge returns? Well, it is a Deepfake video by scammers, who are setting up over 1,000 phishing domains daily.

They are creating deepfake videos of well-known Indian personalities to push dubious gaming apps, according to a report by cyber security firm, CloudSEK. The report alleged that the fraudsters also manipulate the videos of news anchors to produce fake news videos and endorse scamming apps.

How can you spot Deepfake videos?

According to cyber experts, most deepfake software is created using a type of artificial intelligence (AI) model called generative adversarial networks (GANs). These GANs leave a unique “artefact” behind in the Deepfake video.

There are deepfake detection systems, which can pick up these artefacts. Thus, these videos can be detected. Such artefacts embedded in the audio can be recognised by a deepfake detection system, according to reports. But, overall awareness against such scams is also needed to not fall prey to such traps.