Finance Professionals Targeted with Deep Fake Fraud Scams

About 53% of finance professionals in the US and UK have been targeted by deep fake fraud scams. According to Yahoo Finance, data from Medius shows that 43% of those targeted fell victim to the attack. Medius is a top accounts payable automation solutions provider.

Deep fakes are videos, images, or sounds of real individuals that have been manipulated or altered digitally. Scammers use artificial intelligence to misrepresent high-level individuals convincingly.

Real Threat

A growing wave of deep fake fraud scams has scammed millions of dollars from corporations globally. Just recently, the finance sector was hit by deep fake fraud scams.

85% of respondents interviewed by Medius said that deep fake scams pose a serious threat to the financial security of any business. Cybersecurity experts have raised alarm over widespread attacks as scammers leverage generative AI.

Scammers use deep fakes of high-ranking company officers to spread fake news. They also use them to defame brands, manipulate stock prices, or spread disinformation about corporations.

“Today’s CEOs and CFOs have large digital footprints. They have speeches, interviews and videos plastered across YouTube, LinkedIn and corporate websites. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can now use existing online audio content to create fake audios that sound like business leaders. Scammers are creating fake audio clips of CEOs and CFOs and calling the finance team asking them to pay bogus suppliers,” Ahmed Fessi, Medius Chief Transformation & Information Officer said.

High Vulnerability

Finance professionals are highly vulnerable to deep fake scams. 87% of professionals who participated in the Medius survey said they would make a payment if their CFO or CEO called them.

At least 57% of them can make independent financial transactions without seeking approval. Despite this, only 40% of professionals consider guarding their businesses against deep fakes a high priority. 33% say they’ve not been educated well about deep fakes. This is evidenced by the fact that only 5% of respondents knew about deep fake technology.

Finance professionals cannot count on their workmates to stop deep fake fraud scams. Only 36% of them are confident that their colleagues at work would identify a deep fake attempt.

Prevention

Conventional phishing attacks involve sending fraudulent emails or websites to targets. The aim is to trick people into sharing sensitive details with scammers. Attacks are also aimed at pushing victims into completing unauthorized transactions. Deep fakes blow this deception further.

They impersonate trusted officials in corporations with hyper-realistic video or audio impersonations. Despite the high vulnerability, finance professionals can prevent deep fake fraud scams.

“There are three important factors to prevent falling victim to deep fake attacks. One is education- employees should understand the threats and know how to counteract them. Second is the process. Too many businesses allow employees to make payments without the right checks and balances. Third is technology. AI is a force for good for finance professionals if deployed correctly as it can spot anomalous transactions based on large data sets,” Fessi added.

Organizations should invest in technology and safeguards to protect professionals. They should also educate them on phishing.