KBank warns of new cyber threat from call center gangs
call center gangs using ‘Deepfake’ technology to imitatepolice’s voice and face, cheating a victim out of 600,000 Baht
KASIKORNBANK (KBank) has been informed by customers that they were lured by call center gangs into making funds transfer, causing them to lose money – ranging from 10,000 to several hundred thousand Baht. The most recent case involved a new trick wherein the criminal made a video call and used ‘deepfake’ technology to impersonate the face and voice of a policeman, inducing the victim to make funds transfer of more than 600,000 Baht. KBank emphasizes the importance of prevention of financial cyber threats while being ready to cooperate with public agencies to assist victims of fraud in a timely manner, especially through the arrangement of a system for checking account irregularities and keeping them abreast of the latest online scams. The Bank recently launched the SATI campaign, via hashtag #UseSATIToProtectSATANG, with useful tips to remember such as, “Don’t Be Fooled – Don’t Give Information – Don’t Make Funds Transfer”, via multiple media of KBank.
Mr. Krit Jitjang, KBank President, said that call center gangs are becoming more sophisticated in cheating victims as they are using tricks that appear more credible. Of late, they make calls and create situations to make victims frightened or lure them with a high amount of reward money, resulting in many people falling for online frauds and losing a lot of money. A common trick used by call center gangsters is calling customers with credit card debts and asking them to make immediate payment by transferring funds to a false account.
Recently, a new trick was found to be used by a call center fraudster to scam KBank’s customer. This customer believed that they had received an overseas call from an employee of a transportation company, informing the customer that there was an illegal document in their parcel. The caller then asked the customer to turn on a video call to talk to a police officer, who was in fact an impersonation generated by ‘deepfake’ technology that can replicate mouth movements and voice in the video. The fake policeman in the video told the customer with a threatening voice that the parcel contained an account passbook that was suspected to be involved with money laundering, and asked for an inspection of the customer’s account. In so doing, the customer had to transfer funds from their account to the police as a proof of innocence. Before realizing that it was a fraud, the customer already transferred all of their money – more than 600,000 Baht – from the account.
Mr. Krit added, “KBank has established three work approaches in assisting victims of cybercrime, as follows: 1) Collaboration with the Royal Thai Police in an online cybercrime reporting system. Through this program, joint operations between the police and KBank officers can be conducted rapidly and efficiently in order to appropriately counter the increasingly diverse forms of cyber threats at present; 2) A bank account verification and management system for detecting accounts with unusual transactions and setting up preventive measures to effectively combat financial fraud; and 3) Updates on the latest scams, and promotion of useful tips under the hashtag of #UseSATIToProtectSATANG, ‘Don’t Be Fooled – Don’t Give Information – Don’t Make Funds Transfer’, via multiple media of KBank.”
