Malaysian politicians targeted in AI deepfake extortion scheme
At least 10 Malaysian politicians received extortion emails containing AI-generated deepfake videos of sexually explicit content featuring their faces, with demands for payment in USD or cryptocurrency. Police and Malaysia's communications regulator opened investigations, and authorities sought Google's assistance to trace the emails sent from Gmail accounts.
What happened
At least 10 Malaysian politicians received extortion emails sent from the same Gmail address with AI-generated deepfake video screenshots. Each email threatened to release sexually explicit videos featuring the recipient's face unless they paid 100,000 USD or 100,000 USDT within three days.
The extortion emails were sent to members of parliament and state assemblymen from multiple parties. The sender claimed to be a private investigator who had been tracking the politicians and possessed compromising material.
Reported impact
The targeted politicians reported the scheme to Malaysia's Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and police. One state assemblyman described the threat as a serious criminal act aimed at endangering his personal safety and damaging his reputation.
Index analysis
The government stated that the deepfake material was created using AI technology, and authorities believed all emails originated from a single person who obtained official email addresses from parliament and state assembly websites.
Governance controls
Police opened investigations under Article 385 of the Penal Code (extortion) and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (misuse of network devices). The Communications Ministry requested Google's assistance to trace the email sender and sought to increase digital forensics equipment at MCMC to investigate AI-generated materials.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.