The African Union Commission on Tuesday, October 17 fell victim to Artificial Intelligence cybercrime pranksters who made deepfake videocalls pretending to be Chairperson Moussa Faki.
In a statement, the Commision confirmed that the fraudsters deployed artificial intelligence tools to impersonate the continental body’s head Moussa Faki.
The International body further noted that the impersonation did cut across its member states.
“It has come to our attention that several foreign capitals have fallen victim to fake emails purporting to be from AU Chairperson requesting to phone calls with foreign leaders,” read the statement by African Union.
African Union Verbale Note
Ebba Kalonda the spokesperson to African Union Chairperson Moussa Faki addressed the unprecedent incident that hit the commission.
Subsequently the commission emphasized that it only uses a note verbale before making any diplomatic calls.
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“The African Union Commission reiterates its strict adherence to diplomatic protocol and exclusive usage of Note Verbale for high-level engagement requests,” Ms Kalondo said in a statement.
Notably, the commission confirmed that Faki who is the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, the secretariat of the African Union, routinely writes to global leaders whenever he needs to place a call.
On the other hand, AU reinstated that the note verbale is a standard procedure for scheduling meetings within the organization.
Artificial Intelligence Deepfakes
However, the fraudsters faked the Chairperson’s voice and made several video calls to European capitals, seeking to arrange meetings.
Faki’s spokesperson confirmed that, “the pranksters then went ahead to hold video calls with several European leaders, while using deep fake video alterations to impersonate the chairperson.”
What is Artificial Inteligence Deepfakes
Deepfakes is a technology used by cybercrime fraudsters and has increasingly become popular and are sometimes used by certain entities to spread misinformation and propaganda
Additionally, deepfakes are notably realistic videos or images created using Artificial Intelligence that can be used to impersonate someone else.
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Similarly, scammers can use deepfakes to create videos or images of executives, celebrities, or other high-profile individuals to trick people into thinking that they are communicating with a legitimate source.
The AU Commission added that the cybercriminals used fake email addresses pretending to be the organization’s deputy chief of staff, seeking to arrange calls between foreign leaders and Mr. Faki.
It was however not clear what the intentions of the imposters were.
