5 real-life examples of AI-powered hacking attacks that manipulated people's fear or trust and lured them out of money or information

Deepfake in politics

In September 2024, the office of Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, received an email invitation from former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba with a proposal to connect with him via Zoom.

Cardin joined the online meeting. In a subsequent video call, his interlocutor, who was actually generated by an AI, looked and spoke like Kuleba. However, the senator became concerned when the person impersonating Kuleba began to behave atypically: he began asking «politically biased questions about the upcoming election» to obtain information on sensitive foreign policy issues, such as whether the senator supported launching long-range missiles into Russian territory. Cardin ended the call and reported it to the authorities.

Senate security officials warned lawmakers to remain vigilant.

Cloning the President’s Voice

That same month, it was reported that the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had imposed a $6 million fine on Steve Cramer, an attacker who created thousands of robocalls that imitated President Joe Biden’s voice.

Cramer called New Hampshire voters in early 2024, using artificial intelligence to clone his voice and fake caller ID to urge people not to participate in the state’s presidential primary.

In addition to the attacker himself, the operator Lingo Telecom, which facilitated Kramer’s calls, also received a $1 million fine.

Massive deepfake in a video meeting with colleagues

In February 2024, an employee of a multinational company in Hong Kong, during a video conference with colleagues, received an assignment from his director in the United Kingdom to make a money transfer of $25 million.

At first, the specialist thought it was phishing when he received an email inviting him to a conference, but the presence of several of his colleagues at the online meeting reassured the employee.

The employee made about 15 transactions on five different bank accounts and transferred funds to the fraudsters totaling 200 million Hong Kong dollars, or $25 million. But it turned out that he transferred all the funds to the fraudsters, because the other conference participants, except for him, were created by artificial intelligence.

Telegram account hacked and voice and text messages forged

In the summer of 2024, fraudsters used AI to trick investor and IT entrepreneur Mykhailo Patsan out of about 1 bitcoin. He said that the previous evening he had been chatting on Telegram with his business partner, discussing bitcoin, which had reached a value of about $72,000 at the time, and the appropriateness of selling it.

The next day after lunch, Mykhailo received another voice message from his partner, asking him to drop one cue ball. The partner dropped not only voice messages, but also video messages, where he proved that it was definitely him, and not an artificial intelligence.

This convinced Mikhail, he did what his partner asked. The next day, it turned out that the partner’s Telegram account had been hacked by scammers, and within an hour, only a close circle of people had transferred about $500,000 to the attackers.

Deepfakes on the Internet as a weapon in war

Propagandists from the Russian channel NTV released a fake video featuring the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, trying to convince people that Ukraine was allegedly involved in the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall in the Moscow region.

To create the fake, the Russians used some footage from the telethon on March 16 and replaced the guest — the head of the GUR MOU Budanov — with a fake video with Alexei Danilov. In the video, the fake Danilov says, in particular: «It’s fun in Moscow today, I think, very fun. I want to believe that we will arrange such fun for them more often.»

Read the country’s main IT news in our Telegram

On the topic

Read the country’s main IT news in our Telegram

In the Rivne region, scammers robbed a woman by creating a deepfake of her volunteer friend

On the topic

In the Rivne region, scammers robbed a woman by creating a deepfake of her volunteer friend

Mini-earphones, deepfakes, and twin brothers — what IT professionals won’t do to get a job

On the topic

Mini-earphones, deepfakes, and twin brothers — what IT professionals won’t do to get a job

Microsoft study: AI deepfakes about Kamala Harris created by Russian propaganda were injected into American social networks

On the topic

Microsoft study: AI deepfakes about Kamala Harris created by Russian propaganda were injected into American social networks