{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0411","record_version":1,"title":"Police charge nine more in $34m deepfake crypto scam","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":42.5,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":0.0,"completeness":2.24,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":1,"reports_independent":0,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"feda61ec23aee5077b46213e5cf37f5b34670cf3cdd0d69a70978e360469a5dc"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-02-10","incident_class":"other","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"Hong Kong police charged nine more suspects in a cross-border deepfake cryptocurrency fraud case, bringing the total prosecuted to 14. According to police, the syndicate ran scam centers in two units of industrial buildings in Kowloon Bay. Members used AI deepfake technology to create fake online identities and target victims on dating platforms. The group employed AI-generated images and videos and, in some cases, conducted video calls using deepfake technology to impersonate victims’ contacts. After gaining trust, scammers introduced cryptocurrency investments, urging victims to buy virtual currencies such as Ether. Police said the fake platforms were controlled by overseas criminal groups, with all promised returns fictitious. Victims ultimately lost their entire investments. A total of 31 people, including a Hong Kong Premier League footballer, were arrested earlier in the operation.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"moderate","severity_because":"Bounded scope test: the sources state a cross-border case with losses to overseas victims and two scam-centre units; the victims are third parties whose money was taken, and the scope is stated, so moderate applies. No stated count of two or more affected parties is given for the victims.","harm_class":[],"affected_description":null,"protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.thestandard.com.hk/news/article/324116/Police-charge-nine-more-in-34m-deepfake-crypto-scam","publisher":"The Standard (HK)","date":"2026-02-10","type":"press","title":"Police charge nine more in $34m deepfake crypto scam - The Standard (HK)","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"}],"per_field_confidence":{"context.country":"C","event.incident_class":"D","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","system.developer":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Hong Kong police charged nine additional suspects on Tuesday in a cross-border deepfake cryptocurrency fraud case, bringing the total prosecuted to 14 and recovering over HK$34 million in losses to overseas victims."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Hong Kong police charged nine additional suspects on Tuesday in a cross-border deepfake cryptocurrency fraud case, bringing the total prosecuted to 14 and recovering over HK$34 million in losses to overseas victims."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Hong Kong police charged nine additional suspects on Tuesday in a cross-border deepfake cryptocurrency fraud case, bringing the total prosecuted to 14 and recovering over HK$34 million in losses to overseas victims."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Hong Kong police charged nine additional suspects on Tuesday in a cross-border deepfake cryptocurrency fraud case, bringing the total prosecuted to 14 and recovering over HK$34 million in losses to overseas victims."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Hong Kong police charged nine additional suspects on Tuesday in a cross-border deepfake cryptocurrency fraud case, bringing the total prosecuted to 14 and recovering over HK$34 million in losses to overseas victims."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to police, the syndicate ran scam centers in two units of industrial buildings in Kowloon Bay."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Members used AI deepfake technology to create fake online identities and target victims on dating platforms."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The group employed AI-generated images and videos and, in some cases, conducted video calls using deepfake technology to impersonate victims’ contacts."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"After gaining trust, scammers introduced cryptocurrency investments, urging victims to buy virtual currencies such as Ether."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Police said the fake platforms were controlled by overseas criminal groups, with all promised returns fictitious."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Victims ultimately lost their entire investments."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"A total of 31 people, including a Hong Kong Premier League footballer, were arrested earlier in the operation."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"Source 0 is a single press report. It describes a human criminal syndicate that used AI deepfake tools; no autonomous AI agent, AI model, developer, harness or deployment is identified, so system, agent failure, trigger, root cause and control fields are left out. Judgements made: incident_class set to other because no closed class fits a human-run fraud; tags and the single risk RK19 (AI output used to mislead people) were chosen by me; severity set to moderate on the bounded-scope test. The publication date 2026-02-10 appears only in the source header and is not stated in the body, so date_disclosed is left out. The loss is stated in HK$ and is not converted to USD, so direct_loss_usd is left out. The source does not state when the scam occurred, how it was detected, or how much of the loss was recovered, so those fields and reversibility are left out. Victim count is not stated, so third_parties_affected_count is left out. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (Publisher not yet named · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"HK","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"caught","text":"Police arrested 31 people, including a Hong Kong Premier League footballer, earlier in the operation.","quote":"A total of 31 people, including a Hong Kong Premier League footballer, were arrested earlier in the operation.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"done","text":"Police charged nine more suspects, bringing the total prosecuted to 14.","quote":"Hong Kong police charged nine additional suspects on Tuesday in a cross-border deepfake cryptocurrency fraud case, bringing the total prosecuted to 14 and recovering over HK$34 million in losses to overseas victims.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.thestandard.com.hk/news/article/324116/Police-charge-nine-more-in-34m-deepfake-crypto-scam"]}}