Deepfake creation tools and services can be found on dark web marketplaces, and these services involve creating AI videos for various purposes, including fraud, extortion, and confidential data theft. Prices for creating or purchasing deepfake clips may vary depending on the complexity of the project and the quality of the final product. Kaspersky experts estimate that the price per minute of a deepfake video clip can range from $300 to $20,000. These data were revealed at the eighth annual cybersecurity forum for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (Cyber Security Weekend – META 2023), which was hosted by the Kazakh city of Almaty.
Kaspersky experts conducted an analysis of several darknet markets and underground forums offering services for creating videos and audio recordings for various malicious purposes. In some cases, individuals may request specific targets to create the deepfakes, such as celebrities or political figures.
Kaspersky experts conducted an analysis of several darknet markets and underground forums offering services for creating videos and audio recordings for various malicious purposes. In some cases, individuals may request specific targets to create the deepfakes, such as celebrities or political figures.
A deepfake targeting Elon Musk is promoting a new cryptocurrency scam
-Deep falsification technology can be used to bypass verification in payment services, by creating realistic fake videos or audio recordings of a legitimate account owner, to deceive payment service providers, into believing that they are the actual owner of the account, and thus they can access the account, and then seize the sums of money. in it.
Deepfake technology is increasingly used in extortion and fraud attempts. For example, the CEO of a British energy company was deceived out of $243,000, and in the process relied on the voice forging of the head of the parent company requesting an emergency money transfer. The operation resulted in an amount being transferred to the fraudster’s bank account. Suspicions were raised about the same process when the criminal requested another transfer, but it was too late to recover the money transferred the first time. A similar case was reported in the United Arab Emirates, where $400,000 was seized in a scam that also involved deepfakes.
Commenting on these practices, Vladislav Toshkanov, Chief Data Scientist at Kaspersky, said: “It is important to remember that deepfakes are not only a threat to companies, but also to individual users. Then these criminals can spread misleading information, use it for fraud, or impersonate someone without their consent. Thus, we believe that increasing your level of digital literacy is the best solution in order to address such threats.”
Continuous monitoring of dark web resources provides important insights into the deepfake industry, especially as it allows researchers to track the latest trends and activities of digital threat actors. By monitoring the dark web, researchers are able to discover new tools, services, and marketplaces used to create and distribute deepfakes. This type of monitoring is a critical component of deepfake research, and helps us improve our understanding of the evolving threat landscape. Kaspersky’s Digital Footprint Intelligence service includes this kind of monitoring to help its customers stay up to date when it comes to deepfake threats.
