SINGAPORE (ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES) – The police have urged businesses and employees to guard against scammers using deepfake technology to pose as senior executives, after a finance director of a multinational corporation nearly lost over USD499,000 (SGD670,000).
In a statement on April 7, the police said that its Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) worked with the Hong Kong Police Force’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre (ADCC) to recover the money that was lost to a business-related impersonation scam involving digital manipulation.
On March 24, the finance director was contacted on WhatsApp by a scammer impersonating the company’s chief financial officer.
He was told to participate in a video conference on a supposed restructuring of the firm’s regional business on March 26 as well as to link up with an executive partner of a law firm.
Later, he received a call from a man impersonating a lawyer, who told him the importance of the project and the need for confidentiality. He was subsequently required to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
On March 25, the victim was told that the video conference was rescheduled to that day itself.
He joined the Zoom video conference with the company’s chief executive officer and other stakeholders, who were impersonated using deepfake technology.
During the video conference and in later communication with the fake lawyer, the victim was instructed to transfer over USD499,000 from the company’s HSBC bank account to another local corporate bank account, which he carried out March 26.
The victim was not aware that the beneficiary corporate bank account was a money mule account managed by the scammers.
From the account, funds amounting to over USD494,000 were transferred to Hong Kong bank accounts.
The victim only became aware of the scam on March 27 when the scammer asked for an additional USD1.4 million to be transferred. He quickly alerted HSBC, which immediately notified the ASC.
The ASC was able to establish the destination of the scam proceeds and sought help from its Hong Kong counterparts to recover the money.
On March 28, the ADCC successfully withheld the full amount that was transferred to the Hong Kong bank accounts.
The ASC also seized the remaining amount of over USD5,000 in the local mule account.
To better guard against such scams, the police in their statement, recommended that businesses establish protocols for employees to confirm the legitimacy of any video calls or messages, especially those from senior executives or key stakeholders.
It also encouraged employees to remain cautious about unexpected or urgent fund transfer requests and verify the authenticity of the instructions with the appropriate departments or people directly via official communication channels.
Scam victims in Singapore lost SGD1.1 billion in 2024, marking a record high amount of losses suffered in a single year.
Almost 25 per cent of this involved cryptocurrency, a surge from 6.8 per cent of total losses in 2023, the police said in February.
Investigations into the case are ongoing.
