Chinese police arrest 515 suspects for deep-fake fraud

BEIJING -- Chinese police authorities have arrested 515 people in a special campaign targeting fraud cases that use deep-fake face-swapping technology, according to sources from the Ministry of Public Security on Thursday.

A total of 79 relevant cases have been solved in the campaign, said Sun Jinfeng, a senior official with the ministry's cybersecurity bureau, at a press conference.

The police have been keeping a close eye on violations of citizens' personal information by misusing advanced technologies such as ChatGPT, cloud computing, blockchain and deep-fake technology, Sun said.

Noting the instrumental role of personal information infringements for other illegal activities, Sun pledged a heavy-handed approach in cracking down on such violations.

He said that since 2020, the ministry has launched special "clean cyberspace" campaigns each year with a focus on cracking down on personal information violations.

Over the past three years, the police have solved 36,000 relevant cases, nabbing 64,000 suspects, Sun said, adding that over 300 million internet accounts were found to have been involved in the illegalities.