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Deepfake fraud directed at banks on the rise

Added friction, manual processes and better education is being used to combat the rise of digital clones from fraudsters

by Liz Lumley

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Deepfake fraud directed at banks on the rise

Image: themotioncloud/Getty Images

Recently, UK engineering group Arup was tricked into transferring $25mn to fraudsters who used a digitally cloned, or deepfake, version of a senior manager during a video conference in Hong Kong. This crime is the latest in this trend.

As far back as 2019, criminals used artificial intelligence to impersonate a CEO of a UK-based energy firm in order to steal $240,000. That attempt was unsuccessful. However, one year later, the branch manager of a Japanese company in Hong Kong was tricked into transferring $35mn after receiving instructions from a deepfaked voice of a director of his parent company.

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Liz Lumley

Liz Lumley is deputy editor at The Banker. She is a global specialist commentator on global financial technology or “fintech”. She has spent 30 years working in the financial technology space, most recently as director at VC Innovations and architect of the Fintech Talents Festival, managing director at Startupbootcamp FinTech London and an editor at financial services and technology newswire, Finextra. She was named Journalist of the Year for Technology and Digital Finance at State Street’s UK Press Awards for 2022.