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Incident 1648: Hong Kong Man Reportedly Lost More Than HK$10 Million in WhatsApp Scam Using Purported AI-Generated Voice Impersonation of His Father

Description: A Hong Kong man reportedly lost more than HK$10 million after scammers hijacked his father's WhatsApp account and sent voice messages closely resembling his father's voice and speech. The victim allegedly made repeated transfers until his savings were depleted.

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Alleged: Voice cloning technology developers , Synthetic media generation technology , Synthetic audio generation technology developers and Deepfake technology developers developed an AI system deployed by Voice cloning impersonation scammers , Synthetic media creators , Scammers in Hong Kong , Scammers , Deepfake creators and Cybercriminals, which harmed WhatsApp users , Victims of voice cloning impersonation scams , Victims of impersonation scams and Financial scam victims.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Synthetic media generation technology , WhatsApp , Voice cloning technology , Synthetic audio generation technology , Messaging apps and Deepfake technology

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1648
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2026-07-29
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

+2
Hong Kong raises alert on AI voices as 150 WhatsApp hijackings lead to HK$26m losses
WhatsApp scam costs Hong Kong man $1.27 million after criminals used AI voice notes to impersonate his father — experts say secret codewords are the best way to stay safe
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Hong Kong raises alert on AI voices as 150 WhatsApp hijackings lead to HK$26m losses

Hong Kong raises alert on AI voices as 150 WhatsApp hijackings lead to HK$26m losses

scmp.com

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In Hong Kong, scammers impersonated the victims' fathers and sent messages to defraud people of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

In Hong Kong, scammers impersonated the victims' fathers and sent messages to defraud people of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

hkcna.hk

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WhatsApp scam costs Hong Kong man $1.27 million after criminals used AI voice notes to impersonate his father — experts say secret codewords are the best way to stay safe

WhatsApp scam costs Hong Kong man $1.27 million after criminals used AI voice notes to impersonate his father — experts say secret codewords are the best way to stay safe

techradar.com

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Hong Kong raises alert on AI voices as 150 WhatsApp hijackings lead to HK$26m losses
scmp.com · 2026

Hong Kong police have recorded 150 WhatsApp account hijacking cases in the past two weeks, with total losses exceeding HK$26 million (US$3.31 million), including one in which a victim was scammed out of HK$10 million by fraudsters impersona…

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In Hong Kong, scammers impersonated the victims' fathers and sent messages to defraud people of millions of Hong Kong dollars.
hkcna.hk · 2026
AI Translated

Hong Kong, July 29 (China News Service) – Hong Kong police posted on their "Internet Guardian" social media platform on the 29th that a victim recently received a WhatsApp voice message from his father, unsuspecting it was a scam, and trans…

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WhatsApp scam costs Hong Kong man $1.27 million after criminals used AI voice notes to impersonate his father — experts say secret codewords are the best way to stay safe
techradar.com · 2026

A Hong Kong man was recently conned out of HK$10 million ($1.27 million) by scammers who used artificial intelligence (AI) on WhatsApp to impersonate his father and request the payments, highlighting the dangers of trusting increasingly rea…

Variants

A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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