'Send money immediately' CEO was deceived by AI voice and was robbed of 170 billion won

Three people were indicted in the United States on charges of stealing more than $129 million (about 175.9 billion won) from companies by imitating the voices of CEOs and lawyers using artificial intelligence (AI).

The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 8th (local time) that they repeated this method for about 18 months starting in July 2024, citing the indictment released by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York on the 5th.

According to prosecutors, this group approached accounting and finance staff at American and European companies via email and then called them using AI-replicated CEO voices to demand immediate remittance for secret transactions.

Then, an accomplice impersonating a lawyer from a large law firm contacted him to complete the transfer, and also attempted a video call using a CEO deepfake.

The accounting manager of a hospital chain in Missouri received a phone call in a familiar CEO's voice telling him to send money immediately as it was an urgent, confidential matter. After receiving a call from a lawyer and sending the money, he lost $4.8 million (approximately KRW 6.5 billion).

A British fintech company ($11.6 million), a Florida pet food company ($5.2 million), and a Massachusetts mutual fund management company ($4.6 million) also fell victim to the same scheme.

Prosecutors said the group created and used handwritten call scripts titled "Attorney Calls," which included regulatory language and insider trading risks to prevent employees who answered the calls from disclosing the contents of the calls to co-workers, prosecutors said.

The defendants are Israeli nationals Sharon Hazan (54) and Guy Sitrit (42), and British resident Jacob Sol (41), who were arrested sequentially in Spain and England between June and September and are awaiting extradition to the United States.

They were charged with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering, and each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The prosecution revealed that the group converted the stolen money into virtual currency and shared it with Hazan, who also boasted that he had laundered more than $400 million (approximately 545.5 billion won) over the past three years.

The number of AI-related fraud reports filed with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) exceeded 22,000 last year, and the damage exceeded $890 million (approximately 1.2 trillion won).

The NYT warned of the dangers of AI impersonation fraud and pointed out that this technology has now become so easy that anyone can use it.

Deepfake expert Professor Hannie Ferried of Dartmouth College said that with just one modern laptop, you can clone someone's voice in less than a minute and create an 'avatar deepfake' with a photo of your face.

He said, "People's ability to identify (fake) is slightly above the level of taking random pictures," and "A couple of months ago, a CEO said, 'This is the end. From now on, we will do everything face-to-face.'"