Ministers among more than 100 Singapore public servants sent extortion notes with 'compromising' deepfake images

SINGAPORE: Over 100 Singapore public servants - including five ministers - from more than 30 government agencies have received extortionary emails since Tuesday (Nov 26), said the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) on Thursday.

The emails were sent to political office holders, public officers and agencies' mailboxes, demanding 50,000 USDT (US$50,000) in return for not publishing "compromising" videos, said MDDI.

The emails contained an image purporting to be a screenshot from the video in question, with doctored images of faces clearly identifiable in the image.

All the emails' contents and images were the same, with the only difference being the faces of the political office holder or public officer in the image. The images appear to have been from open sources such as LinkedIn, added MDDI.

The ministers affected include Minister for Transport Chee Hong Tat, as well as Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Edwin Tong.

MDDI added that members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council had also received similar emails on Nov 23.

"The Government takes a zero-tolerance stance towards the use of deepfakes for extortion or harassment purposes. The public officers who have received similar emails have been advised to report them to the police immediately," said MDDI.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo called such tactics "despicable", noting that the latest wave appeared to target public officials, whose contact details are readily available online.

Earlier on Thursday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) - one of the 31 agencies affected - reported that staff from Singapore's public healthcare institutions had received extortionary emails containing fake obscene images of themselves.

The doctored images contained superimposed publicly sourced pictures of the victims' faces on obscene screenshots of a man and a woman "purportedly in an intimate and compromising situation", said MOH.

MOH said it was alerted on Tuesday to the incident.

"The emails were sent from multiple email addresses and threatened to expose the images unless a ransom was paid," said the ministry.

"All affected individuals have been advised to file reports with the police. No monetary loss has been reported from the affected individuals."

MOH has alerted all its public healthcare institutions, statutory boards and staff to report similar extortionary emails to the police if they receive them.

"MOH and our healthcare clusters adopt a zero-tolerance stance against any form of staff harassment and abuse, and strongly condemn this malicious act against our healthcare workers and their families," added the ministry.

In a separate news release on Wednesday, the police said there had been recent cases of extortionary emails, with the images manipulated in a similar way.

The police received more than 20 such reports in end-November, including reports from public healthcare workers.

The emails warned of "threatening consequences" unless the victims transferred 50,000 USDT to a cryptocurrency e-wallet account provided in the email.

"Based on the current cases, the emails would be sent to the victims’ work email addresses," the police added.

"Based on preliminary investigations, the information of the victims, such as photographs and work email addresses, were believed to be obtained from publicly available online sources."

Police investigations are ongoing.

This is not the first time such letters or emails have been reported.

Earlier this year, several Members of Parliament (MPs) were among dozens of people to receive extortion letters with manipulated photos.

Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, as well as MPs Tan Wu Meng, Yip Hon Weng and Edward Chia said in April that they had received such letters and lodged police reports.

Dr Balakrishnan wrote in a Facebook post that the letters contained a “fake distasteful image accompanied by a threat”.

Mr Yip told CNA then that the doctored images were of a low quality and in black and white.

The police said on Apr 19 that more than 70 reports of victims receiving such extortion letters had been reported since March.

The letters also warned of threatening consequences unless they contacted the email address provided.

"With advancements to photo and video editing technology, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) powered tools, manipulated photographs, videos and screenshots may increasingly be used for extortion," said the police on Wednesday.

Victims who receive such emails or letters are advised to remain calm and ignore any instructions to initiate contact or transfer money or cryptocurrency.

Transferring money or contacting the offenders "emboldens" them to continue extorting victims, said the police.

They should report the matter to the police immediately and provide a copy of the email.

"Never share provocative photos/videos/screenshots of yourself online or through chat apps as they might fall into the wrong hands," added the police.