HISPI Project Cerebellum HISPI PROJECT CEREBELLUM

Reported AI-Cloned Voice Used to Deceive Hong Kong Bank Manager in Purported $35 Million Fraud Scheme

January 15, 2020

In January 2020, a Hong Kong bank manager unwittingly authorized $35 million in transfers following a call from an individual whose voice had been cloned using AI technology. The alleged fraud, involving at least 17 individuals and causing global fund transfers that led to a UAE investigation, underscores the importance of safe and secure AI practices.

This incident illustrates the need for robust AI governance and the role of Project Cerebellum in establishing guardrails for AI. Learn more about how you can contribute to the HISPI Project Cerebellum TAIM (Govern, Map, Measure, or Manage) by JOIN US.

Matched TAIM controls

Suggested mapping from embedding similarity (not a formal assessment). Browse all TAIM controls

Alleged deployer
unknown-transnational-fraud-ring, unknown-scammers, unknown-cybercriminals
Alleged developer
unknown-deepfake-technology-developers, unknown-voice-cloning-technology-developers
Alleged harmed parties
unnamed-japanese-firm, unnamed-hong-kong-based-branch-manager-of-unnamed-japanese-firm, general-public-of-the-united-arab-emirates, centennial-bank

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/147

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.