Deepfake Fraud
IntermediateDeepfake fraud is fraud that uses artificial intelligence to create realistic fake videos, images or audio of real people, to deceive victims into transferring money, sharing information or approving transactions.
Deepfake technology uses AI to imitate a person’s face, voice or both. As these tools have become more advanced and accessible, criminals have begun using them to impersonate executives, family members, celebrities and customers.
Common types include voice cloning to impersonate a company executive or relative on the phone, requesting urgent payments; fake video calls impersonating senior managers; fake celebrity videos promoting investment scams; and attempts to fool identity verification systems used by banks to open accounts.
For example, in a widely reported case in Hong Kong in 2024, an employee of a multinational company was tricked into transferring about 25 million US dollars after joining a video call in which the company’s finance chief and other colleagues were all deepfakes.
Defences include verifying unusual requests through separate, trusted channels, such as calling back on a known number; using code words for sensitive requests; requiring multiple approvals for large payments; training staff; and deploying detection technology. Financial institutions are strengthening identity verification with liveness checks, which test whether a real person is present.
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