A 62-year-old woman in New Taipei City was defrauded of NT$2.64 million by scammers who used AI face-changing and voice generation technology to impersonate Hong Kong entertainer Andy Lau during video calls.
In this incident, scammers used artificial intelligence applications to deceive a 62-year-old woman surnamed Lin from New Taipei City into believing she was interacting with Hong Kong entertainer Andy Lau. The scam began when Lin visited what she believed was Lau's personal fan website and received a message from someone claiming to be the celebrity. Initially skeptical, Lin was convinced during a video call where she saw and heard what appeared to be Lau speaking to her. The scammers used AI face-changing technology to generate Lau's appearance and voice during the video interaction. The fake Lau told Lin he was planning to visit Taiwan and needed NT$2.6 million for accommodation, security, dinner and other expenses, asking fans to donate money. Lin borrowed money and transferred NT$2.64 million to the provided bank account. Her family members became suspicious and reported the incident to police. To catch the perpetrators, police arranged a sting operation where Lin requested to make a NT$150,000 cash payment in person at a park in Sanchong District. A 58-year-old woman surnamed Chuang was arrested when she appeared to collect the money. Chuang initially claimed to work for Lau's publicity firm but could not provide details and later admitted to being instructed to collect money, though she denied knowledge of the scamming operation.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed