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In Vietnam, scammers are utilizing Deepfake technology to impersonate friends and family members via video calls on Facebook to deceive victims into transferring large sums of money. The technique involves harvesting visual and audio data from social media to create convincing synthetic media. Beyond financial fraud, the technology is being used to fabricate political disinformation and unauthorized commercial endorsements of products.
In Vietnam, to convince victims of their disguises when prompted, scammers deepfaked audios and videos of victims' friends and families asking them over Facebook to send over thousands of dollars.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Also classified as
Deepfake technology was also reported to be used by anti-state channels to spread political propaganda and fabricate stories about Vietnam's socio-economic status.
Celebrities like MC Quyen Linh and Dr. Truong Huu Khanh had their public likenesses and reputations exploited without permission for unauthorized commercial advertisements.
The primary reported harm is the targeted exploitation of specific victims for financial gain using deepfake video calls to impersonate trusted individuals.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
The harms were caused by human scammers and malicious actors intentionally utilizing deployed deepfake technology to commit financial fraud and spread unauthorized advertisements.
Added categories peak at 3: Substantial (Epistemic Harm, Inferred)
Deepfake technology is being deployed in Vietnam for financial fraud, unauthorized commercial endorsements, and political propaganda by anti-state channels. While primarily a cyber-enabled fraud issue, the use of synthetic media for political propaganda represents a substantial information warfare risk to Vietnam's informational security.
The deepfake generation software is used as a tool by human scammers to perform a specific function (generating synthetic video/audio from inputs) without autonomous goal-directed planning or independent decision-making.
Risk Level 3. Limited Risk: The report describes the creation and use of AI-generated content such as deepfakes, which require transparency obligations under the Act so users are aware they are interacting with synthetic media.
The AI systems were used to generate synthetic video and audio (deepfakes) to impersonate individuals during video calls.
The reports provide clear, detailed accounts of specific victims (N.C.P. and C.T.N.Y.), the amounts of money lost, the methods used by the scammers, and the perspectives of affected public figures. The role of deepfake technology is explicitly stated.
None. The events are clearly characterized as cyber-enabled financial fraud and unauthorized likeness exploitation.
Technology
Deepfake Synthesis Tools
Easy online access to tools that generate realistic video and audio.
Low-Quality Call Masking
Scammers hide deepfake flaws by mimicking weak network connections.
Data Inputs
Public Media Harvesting
Scammers collect personal photos and videos from Facebook and Zalo.
Personal Data Scraping
Scammers gather contact lists, phone numbers, and relationships.
Voice Recording Exploitation
Scammers call victims to record their voice and intonation patterns.
Human Factors
Overreliance on Video Calls
Victims trust blurry video calls without secondary verification.
Urgency and Panic Exploitation
Scammers exploit victim emotions regarding financial emergencies.
Lack of Deepfake Awareness
General public struggle to distinguish between real and deepfaked media.
Process and Methods
Account Takeover via Hacking
Compromising social media accounts to initiate trusted conversations.
Cross-Border Coordination
Scammers operate across international borders, complicating response.
Unauthorized Image Use
Using celebrity images without consent to market unapproved products.
Management
Weak Ad Verification
Ad networks accept spam advertisements without verifying permits.
Slow Response to Hacked Accounts
Platforms take too long to freeze and secure hacked user accounts.
Regulatory Environment
Lack of Ad Enforcement
Agencies struggle to track and punish unauthorized virtual ads.
Inadequate Platform Regulation
Social media platforms lack robust controls to prevent deepfake spreads.
Jurisdictional Challenges
Cross-border cybercrimes lack unified international legal enforcement.
AI system involved
Identified by automated extraction; can differ from the alleged developers above.
