‘Do not blindly trust voice messages’: WhatsApp scammers…

A Hong Kong man was defrauded of HK$10 million ($1.27 million) after falling victim to a sophisticated AI-driven social engineering attack. The scammers targeted the individual via WhatsApp, successfully impersonating his father to solicit a series of urgent monetary transfers that ultimately depleted the victim's entire savings.

What happened

The attack leveraged AI voice synthesis to mimic the voice and mannerisms of the victim's father. The perpetrators initiated contact through WhatsApp, sending voice messages that requested an urgent transfer of HK$1 million. Because the audio was highly realistic and matched the father's known speech patterns, the victim complied with the request. The scammers exploited this initial success, repeatedly contacting the victim and maintaining the ruse until he had transferred HK$10 million in total.

According to the Hong Kong police’s Cyberdefender platform, the effectiveness of the scam relied on the victim's trust in the familiar voice and the manufactured sense of urgency designed to prevent critical thinking. Experts advise that such deepfake voice scams can be mitigated by establishing secret codewords with family members—information that an AI would not possess. If an unusual request is received, authorities recommend hanging up and initiating an independent call to the known contact to verify their identity. Furthermore, users are encouraged to enable two-factor authentication and regularly audit connected devices to prevent unauthorized account access.