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Even videos of your favorite celebrities can be a trap for the gullible.
Palo Alto Networks specialists have discovered a network of fraudulent campaigns that use deepfakes of famous personalities to deceive users and steal funds.
The campaigns are distributed in a variety of languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, Turkish, Czech, and Russian. Each campaign targets specific countries, such as Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Singapore, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Most of the campaigns are likely organized by the same group of threat actors. Deepfake videos are used to promote fraudulent investment schemes and fake cash giveaways, ostensibly from the government. By June 2024, hundreds of domains had been identified to promote campaigns. The average traffic rate for each domain was 114,000 times globally.
Initially, the researchers focused on a campaign promoting an investment scheme called Quantum AI. Analyzing the infrastructure associated with the campaign, experts found other fraudulent networks that use similar methods, but target different audiences depending on the language and public figures.
Quantum AI's research has shown that attackers are using new domains to host videos and lure victims into fraudulent schemes. In most cases, they started with a legitimate video, overlaying an AI-generated audio track on top of it and using lip-sync technologies to create more convincing videos. Most often, cybercriminals resort to deepfakes with the image of Elon Musk, but there have also been cases of using other famous personalities, such as Tucker Carlson or former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong.
In May 2024, researchers noticed that the number of domains associated with Quantum AI had increased significantly, indicating that the campaign was scaling. In addition, scammers have started moving their videos to other domains to avoid being blocked.
The use of deepfake technologies in scams and phishing attacks is becoming more common, posing a serious threat to users. It is important to note that despite the difficulties associated with determining the source of such attacks, the use of traditional investigative methods in combination with the latest technologies remains an important aspect of protection against cyberthreats.
Source
Palo Alto Networks specialists have discovered a network of fraudulent campaigns that use deepfakes of famous personalities to deceive users and steal funds.
The campaigns are distributed in a variety of languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, Turkish, Czech, and Russian. Each campaign targets specific countries, such as Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Singapore, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Most of the campaigns are likely organized by the same group of threat actors. Deepfake videos are used to promote fraudulent investment schemes and fake cash giveaways, ostensibly from the government. By June 2024, hundreds of domains had been identified to promote campaigns. The average traffic rate for each domain was 114,000 times globally.
Initially, the researchers focused on a campaign promoting an investment scheme called Quantum AI. Analyzing the infrastructure associated with the campaign, experts found other fraudulent networks that use similar methods, but target different audiences depending on the language and public figures.
Quantum AI's research has shown that attackers are using new domains to host videos and lure victims into fraudulent schemes. In most cases, they started with a legitimate video, overlaying an AI-generated audio track on top of it and using lip-sync technologies to create more convincing videos. Most often, cybercriminals resort to deepfakes with the image of Elon Musk, but there have also been cases of using other famous personalities, such as Tucker Carlson or former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong.
In May 2024, researchers noticed that the number of domains associated with Quantum AI had increased significantly, indicating that the campaign was scaling. In addition, scammers have started moving their videos to other domains to avoid being blocked.
The use of deepfake technologies in scams and phishing attacks is becoming more common, posing a serious threat to users. It is important to note that despite the difficulties associated with determining the source of such attacks, the use of traditional investigative methods in combination with the latest technologies remains an important aspect of protection against cyberthreats.
Source
