Fraudsters clone CEO voice to steal USD 243,000

The CEO of the German operations of a UK energy company was impersonated using deepfake audio technology and his company defrauded of USD 243,000. 

The UK CEO of the same company had been asked by his German counterpart to wire the money to a Hungarian supplier, which he promptly did. 

According to the company's insurer, Euler Hermes Group, the scammer had likely used commercially available AI voice-generating software to carry out the fraud. 

The incident demonstrated how easy it has become to clone someone else's voice and use it to defraud or misuse it in some other way.

News, commentary, analysis 🗞️

• https://thenextweb.com/security/2019/09/02/fraudsters-deepfake-ceos-voice-to-trick-manager-into-transferring-243000/

• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7435863/Scammers-mimic-voice-German-company-executive-240-000-sent-secret-account.html

• https://www.darkreading.com/risk/cybercriminals-impersonate-chief-execs-voice-with-ai-software/d/d-id/1335722

• https://www.zdnet.com/article/forget-email-scammers-use-ceo-voice-deepfakes-to-con-workers-into-wiring-cash/

• https://www.inquirer.com/news/voice-scam-impersonation-fraud-bail-bond-artificial-intelligence-20200309.html

• https://www.idtheftcenter.org/first-ever-ai-fraud-case-steals-money-by-impersonating-ceo/

• https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/08/31/manager-energy-firm-loses-200000-fraudsters-use-ai-impersonate/

• https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/opinions/ai-voice-impersonation/

• https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/expert-comments/cybercriminals-use-ai-to-impersonate-chief-execs-voice/

• https://threatpost.com/news-wrap-deepfake-ceo-voice-scam-facebook-phone-data-exposed/148071/

• https://www.wsj.com/articles/fraudsters-use-ai-to-mimic-ceos-voice-in-unusual-cybercrime-case-11567157402