Technology has advanced so rapidly, it doesn’t come as a surprise that scammers have found ways to up their game when it comes to cheating people of their money
Hong Kong radio and TV host, Sammy Leung, recently received a video call from a person claiming to be actress Sandra Ng.
In a video shared by Sammy on Instagram, he could be heard asking “Why would Sandra Ng call me?”, before panning to his phone screen.
The person on the other end of the FaceTime call was someone who looked like Sandra but not quite.
‘Sandra’ then spoke in Mandarin with a Hong Kong accent, claiming that “a director had sold her to Cambodia”.
Sammy played along, asking: “What director? You’re filming Love at KK Park?”
For those who didn’t get the joke, KK Park is a place in Myanmar known for its fraud factories that engage in illegal activities such as internet fraud and human trafficking.
Ignoring Sammy’s comment, ‘Sandra’ then asked him for HK$5000 (S$875) so she could “buy a ticket for a boat ride back to Hong Kong”.
She then gave him a bank account number before hanging up.
Of course, Sammy didn’t believe the scammer for one second and quickly identified ‘Sandra’ as a deepfake.
Honestly, it wasn’t hard to tell something was off about ‘Sandra’.
Why would Sandra call Sammy over her family in such a situation? And why would she speak to a fellow Hongkonger in Mandarin?
We also doubt someone as successful as Sandra would not have S$875 in her bank.
Sammy wrote: “Deepfakes these days are so realistic. If you were only looking at her appearance, minus the accent, their ‘Sandra’ bears a 60-70 per cent resemblance to the real thing!”
He also remarked about how scam calls are increasingly common these days and urged his followers to be wary.