Senator Falls Prey to Deepfake Caller Posing as Top Ukrainian Official

Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) fell victim to a sophisticated AI scam last week when he took a video call with a man he believed was the former foreign minister of Ukraine.

Except the man on the call was not Dmytro Kuleba. In fact, he was not anyone at all. Cardin was talking to a “deepfake.” This is a fictional video and/or audio version of a real person created by AI technology, which has gotten so good that it is easily possible to fool people into believing they’re talking to someone real.

In fact, scammers have made quick use of the technology to impersonate family members with a digital version of the person’s voice that is so convincing that unsuspecting people have been tricked into giving scammers money. The con artists often pose as children or grandchildren in some kind of legal trouble who call home to get “bail money.”

News media has gotten a hold of an email sent to federal lawmakers by the Senate’s security office. This memo said that someone who seemed to be Dmytro Kuleba had sent an email to Cardin asking for a video call over the Zoom platform. Cardin agreed, and spent time talking to something he believed was the Ukrainian former official.

According to the memo, Cardin started to get skeptical when he noticed “Kuleba” acting in ways that seemed different from his normal behavior. “Kuleba” began asking Cardin “politically charged questions” about the upcoming presidential election, and insisted on getting Cardin’s opinion on foreign policy questions. For example, “Kuleba” asked if Cardin supported the idea of Ukraine sending long-range missiles into Russia.

After the call, Cardin reported the strange encounter to the State Department, which confirmed that it was not Kuleba, but a digital impostor.

Though the memo cited above did not name Cardin, he is now known to be senator in question. Cardin himself confirmed this in a statement released September 25 when he said “a malign actor” used deception to have a conversation with him by “posing as a known individual.”

It is not yet known which countries or actors were behind the fake call, though of course suspicion has fallen on Russia.