Opinion | As Hong Kong is learning, a deepfake crime epidemic is upon us

It all started with a routine-looking link from a securities firm. Customers who clicked on it found their trading accounts hijacked by scammers, who ended up stealing HK$46 million (US$5.86 million) in a market manipulation and phishing operation. Last week, Hong Kong police arrested eight in connection with the crime. The fraudsters had impersonated licensed brokers, stole login details, and pumped and dumped obscure stocks through stolen accounts.

While phishing is not new, the scam underscored the alarming reality of identity exploitation in the digital age. As society races to contain old threats, criminals are evolving – today’s financial crime often hinges on sophisticated biometric theft, making detection even more challenging.

Welcome to the age of deepfakes. In a world increasingly driven by artificial intelligence (AI), our faces, voices and even patterns of digital movements are no longer just personal identifiers but raw material. Scraped from the nooks and crannies of the internet, this data is repurposed as training material or synthetic content through a slew of affordable AI tools.

In the early days especially, deepfakes seemed innocuous, even entertaining. Even today, regulatory frameworks often underestimate the broader impact of such technology. The European Union’s AI Act, for example, classifies some deepfake applications as “limited risk”. This approach can obscure its real-world dangers: in the wrong hands and context, even so-called low-risk tools can inflict profound harm.