Criminals use fake AI voice in bank robbery of more than 30 million euros

In a bank robbery in the United Arab Emirates, more than 30 million euros were stolen by means of a ‘deep voice’. The voice of a bank manager was faked using artificial intelligence to provoke a fraudulent transaction at the bank.

In his experience, the bank manager of an unnamed bank from the United Arab Emirates received a call from the director of the bank at the beginning of 2020, Forbes describes. In fact, according to the Dubai Public Prosecution Office, he was one of 17 perpetrators of a complex bank robbery, court documents from the Washington, D.C. District Court show. euros, went to Centennial Bank accounts from the United States. The rest of the stolen money was sent to an unknown amount of other accounts.

In addition to the fake voice, the criminals also used fake emails and a lawyer from the so-called bank manager for the robbery. Interactions between the lawyer and the bank manager, shared with the bank manager, were intended to build trust in the latter. In the end, the so-called lawyer instructed the bank manager to transfer money for a company takeover. These transactions turned out to go to the criminals afterwards.

It is not clear from the court documents what kind of ‘deep voice’ voice-distortion technology was used by the criminals. This is not the first time that criminals have used some form of AI for voice distortion. A similar incident occurred in 2019 in a theft in the United Kingdom, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time.