HK firm scammed of $34 million after employee duped by video call with deepfake of CFO - The Straits Times

The South China Morning Post said the case was the first of its kind in Hong Kong. PHOTO: REUTERS

A multi-national company was scammed of HK$200 million (S$34 million) after an employee in Hong Kong attended a video conference call with deepfake recreations of the company’s chief financial officer and other employees.

The South China Morning Post reported on Feb 4 that the case was the first of its kind in Hong Kong, but local police did not name the company or its employees involved.

Hong Kong police senior superintendent Baron Chan said that aside from the employee that was duped, every colleague in the video call was “fake”.

The scammers had used publicly available footage to digitally recreate each individual.

The employee, who works in the finance department, had received a message in January – from someone who appeared to be the company’s Britain-based CFO – asking for a transaction to be made.

Although the employee was initially doubtful, Mr Chan said the victim was fooled after being invited to the video conference call and seeing the company’s CFO and other “employees” in attendance.

The employee complied with instructions given during the meeting, and transferred around HK$200 million to five bank accounts, spread across 15 transactions.

The employee realised the deception only one week after receiving the initial message, after directly inquiring with the company’s headquarters.

Mr Chan said that during the video call, the employee was asked to do a self-introduction, but did not interact with anyone else.

The “fake” colleagues gave orders to the victim, and the meeting ended abruptly after, added Mr Chan.

The scammers had approached two or three employees of the company using the same scam tactic, said Mr Chan, but did not give details of those encounters.

The police are investigating the case, but no arrests have made in connection to the case so far.

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• Deepfake
• AI/artificial intelligence
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• Hong Kong

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2024-02-04 03:35:00Z
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Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Clashes in Gaza City after Israeli all-clear | Israel War on Gaza News - Al Jazeera English

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1. Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Clashes in Gaza City after Israeli all-clear | Israel War on Gaza News  Al Jazeera English
2. Israel launches strikes on Rafah ahead of Gaza truce push  Yahoo Singapore News
3. Deadly strikes hit 'pressure cooker' Rafah ahead of Gaza truce push  Arab News
4. Israel Signals Its Military Will Move Into Rafah, in Southern Gaza  The New York Times
5. Trapped against fence, Gazans in ‘pressure cooker’ Rafah fear Israeli attack on their last refuge  South China Morning Post

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2024-02-03 23:39:03Z
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Israel keeps pressure on last two refugee cities in Gaza, kills 18: Health officials - CNA

In Gaza City, residents and militants said fighting continued against Israeli forces. Health officials said two people were killed by sniper fire. Israeli forces carried out arrests in the southern suburb of Tel Al-Hawa.

Israel launched a war on Hamas, the militant group which rules the Gaza Strip, after an October onslaught on southern Israel by Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people and took 253 people hostage into Gaza, more than 100 of whom are still captive, according to Israeli tallies.

Israeli officials say they aim to eliminate Hamas, which has vowed to repeat its October attacks, and repatriate the hostages, many of whom are women and children.

Gaza health authorities, who do not differentiate between militants and civilians in their tallies, say more than 27,000 Palestinians have been confirmed killed since the start of the war, 107 of them in the past 24 hours, with thousands more feared lost amid the ruins.

The Israeli military said its forces killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen in northern Gaza.

"During targeted raids in the northern and central Gaza Strip over the last day, IDF troops killed dozens of terrorists and destroyed numerous anti-tank missile launchers," the Israel Defense Forces said.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other smaller militant groups said in a separate statement their fighters engaged in fierce battles with the army in the north and the south of the Gaza Strip.

"The more the occupation forces remain on the ground, the more we will get to them," one Palestinian militant official said.

"A martyr falls, another rises and takes the rifle, and we are ready to fight for many more months," he told Reuters.

Asked about Israel saying it killed 10,000 militants, he said, "This is for public consumption in the occupation entity. It is fiction."

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2024-02-03 11:14:00Z
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Indonesia Elections 2024: Prabowo's dual role as minister, presidential hopeful risks abuse of authority, analysts say - CNA

The constant hat-switching is concerning to analysts and activists, who told CNA that it carries the risk of power and state resources being abused for political gains during an election cycle.

Indonesia, they said, should go back to the days when ministers and top public officials are suspended from their respective positions whenever they want to participate in the presidential election as candidates.

INEFFECTIVE CAMPAIGNING 

This is the first time a sitting minister is allowed to run for president without resigning.

But the constant hat-switching is affecting Mr Prabowo’s ability to campaign far and wide, with an analyst alleging that the presidential candidate is unable to expand on his supporter base due to this.  

His rivals Mr Anies Baswedan and Mr Ganjar Pranowo are former governors whose terms ended in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Thus, they are able to freely campaign whenever and wherever they want. 

With more free time on their hands, Mr Anies and Mr Ganjar had been visiting far-flung corners of the vast archipelago, sometimes meeting voters in small towns and remote villages. They were also able to cram more agendas during their visit to a particular province and have more interactions with their respective supporters.

Mr Prabowo, on the other hand, could not campaign outside of Jakarta or travel to areas that are more than a few hours' drive from the capital city too often due to his ministerial duties.

Whenever he does find time to visit far-flung places, it is common for the presidential frontrunner to visit two or three provinces in a single day, leaving very little time to interact with his supporters. 

His limited time also meant that Mr Prabowo tends to stick to big rallies inside sports venues and hotel ballrooms.

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2024-02-02 22:00:00Z
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US launches retaliatory strikes in Iraq and Syria - CNA

The US military said in a statement that the strikes hit targets including command and control centres, rockets, missiles and drone storage facilities, as well as logistics and munition supply chain facilities.

The strikes hit more than 85 targets with more than 125 munitions.

Syrian state media said on Friday that an "American aggression" on sites in Syria's desert areas and the Syrian and Iraqi border resulted in several casualties and injuries.

It came just hours after Biden and Pentagon leaders attended the remains of the three American soldiers killed in the Jordan attack returning to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

The Jordan attack was the first deadly strike against US troops since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October.

The United States has assessed that the drone that killed three of its soldiers and also wounded more than 40 other people was made by Iran, US officials have told Reuters.

But the Pentagon had said it did not want war with Iran and did not believe Tehran wanted war either, even as Republican pressure increased on Biden to deal a blow directly against Iran.

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2024-02-02 21:49:00Z
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Malaysia's Pardons Board halves Najib's jail term to 6 years: How it happened, and what questions remain - CNA

QUESTIONS REMAIN OVER LARGE DISCOUNT OFF FINE, PAROLE 

The Pardons Board’s official statement on Friday, however, has raised some new questions.

It noted that Najib’s RM210 million fine - like his prison sentence - would be halved, but put the new penalty at RM50 million, which is a discount of over 75 per cent.

The Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) later issued a statement to clarify that the new penalties are accurate, without addressing why the error in the language was made in the first place.

Sunway University political scientist Wong Chin Huat said it could have been a typographical error. 

“My first reading is that it was probably poor writing - that the 50 per cent (reduction) was meant to cover only the jail term. It would be interesting if this reveals fingerprints of negotiations, but I won't speculate,” he told CNA.

The Board’s statement made no mention of parole for good behaviour that would allow Najib to get out even earlier than the new release date.

Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research senior fellow Azmi Hassan believes the Board omitted this to avoid overstepping the authority of new king Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, who would have to appoint members of the parole board.

“I think that's the reason why parole was never mentioned, but there is a possibility for (Najib to be released earlier on) good behaviour,” he said.

Also absent from the statement were the Board’s reasons for its decision.

While it is not legally required to disclose how it arrived at this outcome, politicians, lawyers and civil society have called for the grounds to be made public.

“Transparency is required politically, even though not legally. If the public cannot be convinced that Najib is a new man deserving a second chance, opaqueness will only amplify the public anger,” Dr Wong said.

Speaking to news outlet Al Jazeera after the Pardons Board released its statement, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Najib’s ongoing court cases have to continue through an independent judicial process.

At the same time, Najib has the right to appeal to the new king if he is not satisfied with the outcome of his pardon application, Mr Anwar said.

“The process has to be respected, it’s beyond the prime minister or the government. I respect the decision of the then-king. Now, we have a new king,” he said.

“So whatever one feels - of course it’s very political; some support, some don’t - they cannot ignore the fact that you must respect the right of anyone convicted to appeal to the Pardons Board.”

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2024-02-02 12:33:12Z
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Malaysia's Pardons Board announces decision to cut Najib's jail term from 12 to 6 years - CNA

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's Pardons Board has announced that former prime minister Najib Razak's jail sentence for corruption has been reduced from 12 to six years.

The official announcement on Friday (Feb 2) comes after the Pardons Board met on Jan 29.

CNA was the first to break the news on Jan 31, citing sources including senior government officials, that Najib would have his jail term halved and fine reduced under a partial royal pardon.

Najib, 70, has served less than two years of his prison term for his role in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case.

With the reduction in the jail term, Najib has agreed that he will be released on Aug 23, 2028, the statement said. 

The Pardons Board also reduced his RM210 million (US$44.5 million) fine to RM50 million.

But if the fine is not paid, one year will be added to Najib's prison sentence and he will be released on Aug 23, 2029, the Board added.

Speculation about a potential pardon went into overdrive after Dr Zaliha Mustafa, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Federal Territories), confirmed on Tuesday that the board had met on Monday.

The meeting was one of Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin’s last official tasks before he stepped down as Malaysia’s king on Jan 31 and handed the role to Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar under the country’s unique rotation system for its nine royal state households.

Najib was Malaysia’s prime minister for nine years until May 2018 and its first PM to be imprisoned. He began serving his jail term in August 2022 after two failed appeals to overturn his conviction at a Malaysian High Court two years earlier.

The charges involved the transfer of RM42 million from SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB, into his personal bank accounts in 2014 and 2015.

He was found guilty of three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money laundering and one count of abuse of power by the High Court in July 2020, and was sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined RM210 million. The fine remains unsettled.

He is also facing several other charges in relation to the 1MDB scandal, including the laundering of RM27 million involving funds from SRC International.

Najib’s lawyers have applied to dismiss this money laundering case, and the court has said he can apply for an acquittal, or a discharge not amounting to an acquittal if prosecutors are not prepared to proceed with the trial in September, local media reported.

An ex-United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) president, he is still believed to wield huge influence in the party, which is part of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government.

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2024-02-02 07:52:00Z
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