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A 20-year-old Singaporean man's face was transferred onto a porn video using deepfake technology after his phone was allegedly hacked after he picked up a phone call from an unknown number.
Picked up a call from unknown number overseas
In a series of screenshots of a text exchange between the man, Owen Law, and a recipient of the deepfake video known on Facebook as "Ednes Lee", the man claimed that his ordeal started after he picked up a phone call that was supposedly from the UK.
However, he hung up soon after when he didn't hear the caller speaking.
The alleged hacker then texted him, in Chinese, on messaging app Line, under the name "Lori", sending him screenshots of the contacts that Law had on his phone. They sent him a porn video as well that had his face swapped onto it.
Law said the hacker was able to do so as they had stolen the pictures stored on his phone. A picture of him half-naked from the waist up was apparently edited onto the video, making it seem as if he was the one originally in the video.
Blackmailed and threatened
Screenshots of the text exchange he had with the hacker revealed that the hacker had blackmailed him with the deepfake video, asking him to pay S$8,000. Should he fail to do so, they threatened to send the video to his contacts.
They rambled on in their text messages as well, and sounded contradictory at times. For instance, while they tried to deter Law from going to the police, they also claimed that going to the police wouldn't help.
"Don't think of buying time and calling the police, the police are unable to help you. Calling the police wouldn't help also. Honestly, (the fact that) we dare to do this (means that) we're not scared of you going to the police. If you call them, you will only be enraging me, and this will only destroy your reputation even more."
After their threatening messages, in which they mocked him by saying he would feel humiliated forever once his friends, family and colleagues see the video of him masturbating, they said as long as they received the money, they would delete the video and won't bother him again.
Law rejected their request for payment, however, and ignored the hacker's texts. The hacker then started harassing him by saying he might find his naked picture on dating app Tinder.
Screenshot from Law via Ednes Lee/Facebook
Lee and Law also agreed that it is better for Lee not to reply any further to text messages sent by the hacker.
Hacker claimed to Law's contact that he had failed to pay for sexual services
Lee had started texting Law earlier after the hacker accused the latter of not paying up after engaging the services of a sex worker.
Lee said she didn't know Law, and that Law probably had her phone number as he had once bought a game top-up card from her.
Both Lee and Law later resolved the misunderstanding after Lee reached out to him, as Law clarified that his phone had been hacked.
Law also told Lee that he had made a police report, sending images of the report over.
According to the police report, Law said the blackmailer had told him the video would be sent to his contacts if he did not send the money over within three minutes.
After he ignored the messages, many of his friends and ex-colleagues started receiving the video from multiple unknown overseas numbers.
Law also stressed in the report that he had not shared his passwords with anyone, nor had he visited any "unknown websites or links".
He asserted that data was taken without his knowledge as his phone had been hacked.
Top image adapted via Ednes Lee/Facebook