The mayor of a Queensland council that lost nearly $2 million in an alleged international fraud attack says the perpetrators used artificial intelligence able to "imitate personalities".
Unfortunately they don't go into the details about how they were scammed. I'd take a guess that it was some social engineering with usual everyday emails and learning how they operate. After some time they ask for a payment for something common.
Former FBI agent and University of the Sunshine Coast cybersecurity expert Dennis Desmond said AI technology was likely used to convince a council staff member to approve large transactions of money.
"The criminals were probably able to collect a lot of open-source information on the council, its members and its organisational chart, and all sorts of data from public sources, as well as passports and breach data."
I find it interesting that they continued to operate as usual until the police told them that it was happening. I'll jump to the conclusion here in that governments and councils are the low hanging fruit for this new wave of scammers.