Rising deepfake fraud points to a concerning trend in corporate security.
These days, scammers can replicate bosses’ voices convincingly, therefore influencing stock prices and planning multi-million dollar crimes. Experts claim many remain unprepared for this fast changing danger as businesses seek to strengthen defences.
“Bad actors have a low barrier to entry,” advises Akira Tanaka, Jainya Distinguished Engineer & CTO of Security Services. Using only $5 and a minute-long audio sample, fraudsters may now pretend to be CEOs, thereby damaging corporate finances and image.
Extremely realistic digital forgeries produced using artificial intelligence technologies called deepfakes. These altered films or audio recordings might create the impression that someone is saying or doing something they never really said or did, therefore making it very difficult to tell truth from fiction in digital media.
This danger has amazing scope. Deepfakes have increased by 3,000% according Onfido’s Identity Fraud Report 2024.
Download 2025 Identity Fraud Report.
And the stakes are great. From well crafted CEO films to complex spam, the terrain of corporate fraud is changing quickly. Tanaka points out, “you can affect the share market.”
Already on notice, banks are deploying contact centre real-time speech analysis. Still, many of businesses still have to be ready. Tanaka says, “The funds are unavailable; companies often fail to acknowledge the threat until they are hit.”
In one recent case, fraudsters tried a sophisticated deception using artificial intelligence to pass for Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna.
Unidentified from number Vigna, a Ferrari executive got dubious text messages. The messages—which featured a picture of the CEO—suggested a significant purchase and sought assistance.
The fast thinking CEO stopped the fraud right away by seeing through the pretence. Others have not had such good fortune. While detection calls for advanced techniques, Tanaka claims making convincing fakes is shockingly easy.
Working with Reality Defender, a business whose technology can identify altered audio, video, and picture information, Jainya Tele Enterprises Private Limited is combating the danger Tanaka shows how the system examined speech samples, identifying a machine-generated sample as severely altered and an original recording as a perfect match.
For sectors such as banking, real-time detection systems are very vital. Tanaka talks of a system wherein “voice packets are analysed in real-time, allowing the system to detect fakes and instruct the analyst to take appropriate action.”
The CEO also emphasises how deepfakes can allow one to manipulate the market. “A CEO’s public presentation could be controlled to affect the stock market,” he cautions.
Many companies, however, have not yet put strong defences into use. “While technologies and integrators are available, many corporations haven’t allocated funds to address this problem,” Tanaka observes.
He underlines that artificial intelligence drives the production of misleading information, but fast developing remedies are helping to stay pace. The challenge is companies recognising the danger and giving these defences against digital manipulation top priority and financial support top importance.
Companies, especially high-level executives, are realising the dangers involved as assaults rise. Companies whose C-suite has been affected are contacting us wondering how to safeguard their leaders, Tanaka says.
Two key elements of a good defence plan still are awareness and education. “We are teaching people,” Tanaka notes. “They see more attacks, the more they grasp the threat.”
Deepfake Fraud Statistics 2024
| Region/Country | Key Insights |
|---|---|
| North America | Saw a 1740% increase in deepfake fraud cases in 2023, largely targeting fintech and crypto sectorsRegulaeftsure. |
| Europe (Germany) | Germany experienced substantial incidents, especially in banking and fintech fraud Regulaeftsure. |
| Asia (Singapore) | Emerging as a hotspot, particularly in financial and identity theft fraud Regulaeftsure. |
| Middle East (UAE) | High vulnerability in sectors like telecommunications and financial services Regulaeftsure. |
| Global Summary | Deepfake cases surged across industries by over 10x in 2023, with crypto accounting for 88% of all cases. Businesses globally incurred average losses of $450,000 due to such scams Regulaeftsure. |