Elon Musk deepfake crypto scam highlights risks to Hong Kong as AI-related fraud rises
- The Securities and Futures Commission has warned of a fraudulent crypto trading platform called Quantum AI, a long-time scam that uses deepfakes of Elon Musk
- Hong Kong has proven particularly susceptible to AI-related scams, with fintech industry fraud growing 3.8 per cent in the first quarter
In its public warning on May 8, the SFC said that Quantum AI makes claims of being able to earn “too-good-to-be-true” returns and the regulator made a request to the Hong Kong Police Force to block access to related websites and social media pages. The linked domains were inaccessible as of this week, and the Facebook groups appear to have been removed.
There have already been multiple cases of deepfake-related incidents of fraud in Hong Kong, putting the government on alert. Deepfake incidents in Asia-Pacific surged 1,530 per cent last year, with Vietnam and Japan seeing the most attacks, according to a report from identity verification platform Sumsub.
“Thanks to increasing digital financial transactions in the emerging Asia market, there is a larger pool for deepfake targets,” said Penny Chai, Sumsub’s vice-president of business development in APAC. “Since a high volume of instant cross-border transactions takes place in the region, especially in Hong Kong, deepfake scammers can leverage the complexity and volume of financial dealings to carry out fraudulent activities.”
The Quantum AI scam dates back at least a year, although it seems to be recycled with different variations used to target different groups.
