SINGAPORE: When Yio Chu Kang Member of Parliament Yip Hon Weng received an extortion letter containing a manipulated photo of himself over the weekend, he was more annoyed than shocked.
He was already aware from the news that such scams were ongoing, though he still has no idea how or why he was chosen as a victim.
The deepfake, however, was not sophisticated and of a low quality, Mr Yip told CNA on Tuesday (Apr 23). It was in black and white and was not very well-rendered, which was partly how he knew right away it was a hoax.
Mr Yip was among several MPs who received such letters, along with Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Jurong MP Tan Wu Meng and Holland-Bukit Timah MP Edward Chia.
According to the police, the letters, which were sent by post to the victims' workplaces, contained pictures of their faces superimposed onto obscene photographs of a man and a woman purportedly in an “intimate and compromising position”.
The perpetrators sought to make the recipients transfer money to prevent "compromising photographs and videos" of themselves from being leaked and exposed on social media, the police said.
Affected politicians posted on social media about receiving the letters, saying they had lodged police reports.
There have been over 70 police reports since March about such extortion letters, said authorities.
Mr Yip told CNA the letter was initially sent to his town council last week, on Apr 16.
He is the vice-chairman of Ang Mo Kio Town Council, which oversees his constituency as well as Kebun Baru and the wards within Ang Mo Kio GRC.
The letter was sent in a plain envelope, with what seemed like a local stamp, recalled Mr Yip.
When he opened it, he saw an image - "clearly a deepfake" - of his face superimposed onto someone else’s body.
There was a note below, typed out and not handwritten.
He immediately made a police report online before heading to Ang Mo Kio Police Division headquarters to hand over the letter as evidence.
“Only people who have reason to be concerned will email them back,” said Mr Yip of the perpetrators’ modus operandi.
“I looked at the picture, and I don’t even recognise the place and all that.”
He added that his family members were shocked at first but understood better when he explained to them the phenomenon of such threats.
“It brings to bear some of the parliamentary speeches I have made about cybersecurity, the rise of deepfakes and the need to exercise vigilance,” Mr Yip said.
He noted how deepfakes are becoming more prevalent, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong himself a victim of altered and distorted videos used to tout products or spread certain messages.
“In today’s age of AI (artificial intelligence), such things are bound to happen. People can use such mediums for nefarious objectives,” Mr Yip said. “We really have to be vigilant about it and always verify what we see and hear.”
Experts told CNA that the perpetrators likely chose to use physical mail due to a lack of traceability and a higher likelihood of victims actually reading.
“Just about everything can be traced and tracked online or when our mobile phones are used,” said Associate Professor Hannah Yee-Fen Lim from Nanyang Technological University.
“Snail mail makes it harder to trace, especially if they wear gloves and leave no fingerprints, and post it in a street letterbox using very normal-looking envelopes which street CCTVs cannot capture or distinguish.”
The law and computer science expert added that most people who don't look at the photos carefully would not easily identify the deepfakes.
This is especially so with “the speed at which people seem to be happily forwarding messages on social media”, she added.
Mr Benjamin Ang, who heads the Centre of Excellence for National Security at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies think-tank, pointed out that physical letters can avoid spam filters in email systems.
Victims are also more likely to take letters seriously and open them, compared to emails which they may delete without even reading, he said.
While it remains unclear who's behind the plot, the demand for money seems to indicate that they are criminals motivated by profit, said Mr Ang, who is also head of Digital Impact Research at the school.
He added that “there are also known cases where rogue states collaborate with cyber criminal gangs” in such ruses.
The Jurong MP Dr Tan, one of the victims and also a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Home Affairs and Law, wrote on Facebook post on Saturday that he did not want to conjecture the identity of the "ringleaders" or whether they were based in Singapore or overseas.
"I’d rather not speculate on why this is happening now, at a very important time in Singapore's history," he said. "But let me say this: We are not afraid. And we will not let anyone intimidate us or deter us from doing our duty."
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He was already aware from the news that such scams were ongoing, though he still has no idea how or why he was chosen as a victim.
The deepfake, however, was not sophisticated and of a low quality, Mr Yip told CNA on Tuesday (Apr 23). It was in black and white and was not very well-rendered, which was partly how he knew right away it was a hoax.
Mr Yip was among several MPs who received such letters, along with Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Jurong MP Tan Wu Meng and Holland-Bukit Timah MP Edward Chia.
According to the police, the letters, which were sent by post to the victims' workplaces, contained pictures of their faces superimposed onto obscene photographs of a man and a woman purportedly in an “intimate and compromising position”.
The perpetrators sought to make the recipients transfer money to prevent "compromising photographs and videos" of themselves from being leaked and exposed on social media, the police said.
Affected politicians posted on social media about receiving the letters, saying they had lodged police reports.
There have been over 70 police reports since March about such extortion letters, said authorities.
Related:
"CLEARLY A DEEPFAKE"
Mr Yip told CNA the letter was initially sent to his town council last week, on Apr 16.
He is the vice-chairman of Ang Mo Kio Town Council, which oversees his constituency as well as Kebun Baru and the wards within Ang Mo Kio GRC.
The letter was sent in a plain envelope, with what seemed like a local stamp, recalled Mr Yip.
When he opened it, he saw an image - "clearly a deepfake" - of his face superimposed onto someone else’s body.
There was a note below, typed out and not handwritten.
He immediately made a police report online before heading to Ang Mo Kio Police Division headquarters to hand over the letter as evidence.
“Only people who have reason to be concerned will email them back,” said Mr Yip of the perpetrators’ modus operandi.
“I looked at the picture, and I don’t even recognise the place and all that.”
He added that his family members were shocked at first but understood better when he explained to them the phenomenon of such threats.
“It brings to bear some of the parliamentary speeches I have made about cybersecurity, the rise of deepfakes and the need to exercise vigilance,” Mr Yip said.
He noted how deepfakes are becoming more prevalent, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong himself a victim of altered and distorted videos used to tout products or spread certain messages.
“In today’s age of AI (artificial intelligence), such things are bound to happen. People can use such mediums for nefarious objectives,” Mr Yip said. “We really have to be vigilant about it and always verify what we see and hear.”
"ROGUE STATES" COLLUDING WITH CRIMINAL GANGS?
Experts told CNA that the perpetrators likely chose to use physical mail due to a lack of traceability and a higher likelihood of victims actually reading.
“Just about everything can be traced and tracked online or when our mobile phones are used,” said Associate Professor Hannah Yee-Fen Lim from Nanyang Technological University.
“Snail mail makes it harder to trace, especially if they wear gloves and leave no fingerprints, and post it in a street letterbox using very normal-looking envelopes which street CCTVs cannot capture or distinguish.”
The law and computer science expert added that most people who don't look at the photos carefully would not easily identify the deepfakes.
This is especially so with “the speed at which people seem to be happily forwarding messages on social media”, she added.
Mr Benjamin Ang, who heads the Centre of Excellence for National Security at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies think-tank, pointed out that physical letters can avoid spam filters in email systems.
Victims are also more likely to take letters seriously and open them, compared to emails which they may delete without even reading, he said.
While it remains unclear who's behind the plot, the demand for money seems to indicate that they are criminals motivated by profit, said Mr Ang, who is also head of Digital Impact Research at the school.
He added that “there are also known cases where rogue states collaborate with cyber criminal gangs” in such ruses.
The Jurong MP Dr Tan, one of the victims and also a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Home Affairs and Law, wrote on Facebook post on Saturday that he did not want to conjecture the identity of the "ringleaders" or whether they were based in Singapore or overseas.
"I’d rather not speculate on why this is happening now, at a very important time in Singapore's history," he said. "But let me say this: We are not afraid. And we will not let anyone intimidate us or deter us from doing our duty."
Continue reading...