The crime. Hong Kong police in late 2024 and early 2025 dismantled multiple syndicates that used AI face-swapping/deepfake tech to run romance-turned-investment scams (“pig butchering”). The groups reportedly operated out of industrial spaces, used deepfaked profiles and live “video” to build trust, and then funneled victims to bogus crypto or FX platforms.
Pig butchering (a translation of a Chinese slang term shā zhū pán) is a specific type of scam, usually involving long-term grooming of the victim to build trust or romance before persuading them to invest in fake cryptocurrency or other fraudulent schemes. It often uses “catfishing” as the first step, but the primary goal is large-scale financial theft. Pig butchering is a specialized, financially motivated subset of scams that often begins with catfishing—but not all catfishing is pig butchering.
Catfishing is a broad deception tactic: someone pretends to be someone else (often online) to manipulate or exploit another person. Motivation can range from emotional attention-seeking to financial scams.
Deepfake technology uses artificial intelligence (AI) to manipulate audio or video to create a false but realistic video of individuals doing or saying things they did not actually do or say. For example, a person’s face can be swapped with another’s, and lip syncing can be added. Machine learning and sophisticated technical tools have made deepfakes relatively easy to create and increasingly commonplace in recent years, creating an impetus for new legislation. (NCSL)
Authorities said one ring used deepfakes to make scammers appear as attractive women on live video, while scripts and chatbots handled volume outreach and persistence. Losses cited across these actions exceed HK$34 million in one set of arrests and more than US$46 million in another. Hong Kong Free Press HKFPThe Record from Recorded FutureCointelegraph
Criminals. Police arrested 27 in one operation (October 2024) and 31 in another (January 2025). These were structured crews: recruiters, social-media operators, “video” operators using deepfake tools, and money-laundering handlers. The Record from Recorded FutureCointelegraph
Victims and losses. Victims across Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore were targeted, often middle-aged professionals lured over weeks from dating apps or messaging platforms to “exclusive” investments. Cumulative losses cited by police: HK$34M+ (≈US$4.3M) in one tranche [portion of money] and US$46M+ in another. Hong Kong Free Press HKFPThe Record from Recorded Future
Legal status and sentences. At the time of the latest reports, arrests and charges were announced; specific trial outcomes and sentences have not been published. That’s common for large fraud cases spanning jurisdictions, with court proceedings following months later. Hong Kong Free Press HKFP
The lesson. Deepfakes supercharge catfishing. Treat “live video” and selfies as unreliable identity proofs. Verify identities through platform-verified accounts, mutual connections, and real-time authentication steps (dynamic prompts that are hard to synthesize—e.g., ask them to perform a random action on video while holding a date-stamped paper, then require a quick follow-up on a different app/phone number). Never move funds to platforms you didn’t independently find and vet. cetas.turing.ac.uk
(This report is a collaboration with ChatGPT-5.)
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