US Senator Took Zoom Call With Deepfake Scammer Pretending to be Ukrainian Official

A U.S. Senator had a Zoom call with a scammer using deepfake technology to pose as a top Ukrainian official.

Senator Benjamin Cardin, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, took a video call with a deepfake caller who looked and sounded just like Ukraine’s former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, according to a report by The New York Times.

According to an emailed warning sent by Senate security officials to lawmakers’ offices and obtained by the news publication, the senator’s office received an email last Thursday that appeared to be from Kuleba.

The individual purporting to be Kuleba, who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ukraine until earlier this month, requested a Zoom meeting.

During the Zoom video call, the individual resembled and sounded like Kuleba. However, Cardin became suspicious with the caller who was impersonating Kuleba when the deepfake scammer began behaving uncharacteristically, according to Senate security officials.

The deepfake Kuleba demanded that Cardin give his opinion on sensitive foreign policy questions, including whether he supported firing long-range missiles into Russian territory. The impersonator also asked “politically charged questions about the upcoming election.”

The senator ended the Zoom video call with the impersonator and reported the incident to State Department authorities, who confirmed that the person who appeared to be Mr. Kuleba was a deepfake scammer. It is still unclear who who behind the call.

Cardin, a senior U.S. senator from Maryland, confirmed the episode in a statement to The New York Times on Wednesday. The senator acknowledged that “in recent days, a malign actor engaged in a deceptive attempt to have a conversation with me by posing as a known individual.”

The incident has reignited concerns that lawmakers may be targeted by malicious actors attempting to sway U.S. politics or gain access to sensitive information.

Senate security officials told U.S. lawmakers to be on the lookout for similar deepfake scam attempts.

“While we have seen an increase of social engineering threats in the last several months and years, this attempt stands out due to its technical sophistication and believability,” the Senate’s security office warns in an email. “It is likely that other attempts will be made in the coming weeks.”

 
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