\n<\/p>\n
The meeting also supposedly included foreign government officials such as Canada’s foreign minister and the senior diplomatic advisor to the president of the United Arab Emirates, as well as private sector participants such as Blackrock and the Dubai International Financial Centre.<\/p>\n
“The victim would be introduced to the meeting as one of the private sector participants,” said the police.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The video conference would then proceed with a brief by the various government officials about the situation in the Straits of Hormuz and end with a deepfake video of PM Wong delivering closing remarks, which included an acknowledgement of the victim\u2019s attendance at that video conference.”<\/p>\n
Then a scammer, masquerading as a lawyer, would separately contact the victims and convince them to transfer money.<\/p>\n
In an advisory on Thursday warning of more such cases emerging, police said that the scammers appear to be targeting business professionals who have had prior interactions with government officials.<\/p>\n
Of the footage, the police said on Saturday that it observed signs of deepfake technology.<\/p>\n
For instance, the speech did not synchronise with the speakers’ lips. This indicated fake audio was layered on and that the videos of the speakers were pre-recorded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n