Deepfake CFO scams Arup for USD 25 million

Scammers tricked a Hong Kong-based employee of a multinational company into paying out HKD 200 million (USD 26 million) with a fake group video call created using deepfake technology.

According to Hong Kong police, the worker received a strange message purportedly from his company’s UK-based chief financial officer asking for a secret transaction to be carried out. 

Attending a subsequent video call, the employee was reassured by several colleagues whom he thought he recognised; however, it transpired that all the 'people' on the call were in fact deepfake recreations of colleagues that had been manipulated using public video footage.

The scam was discovered when the employee later checked with the company's head office. 

➕ In May 2025, British engineering company Arup confirmed it was the target of the scam.

News, commentary, analysis 🗞️

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-04/deepfake-video-call-scams-global-firm-out-of-26-million-scmp

• https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/04/asia/deepfake-cfo-scam-hong-kong-intl-hnk/index.html

• https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3250851/everyone-looked-real-multinational-firms-hong-kong-office-loses-hk200-million-after-scammers-stage

• https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/hk-firm-scammed-of-34-million-after-employee-is-duped-by-video-call-with-deepfake-of-cfo

• https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/deepfake-video-scams-multinational-company-out-of-26-million-report-124020400691_1.html

• https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/4/24061192/a-company-lost-25-6-million-because-of-a-deepfaked-conference-call