A convincing video call is not proof of identity. In a 2024 case described by Federal Reserve Governor Michael S. Barr, a deepfake of engineering firm Arup’s CFO appeared in a video meeting and helped persuade an employee to transfer $25 million to thieves. For leaders, the key risk is not just synthetic media: it is how a familiar voice, face, or message can make an existing fraud attempt more persuasive.
How deepfakes can strengthen familiar business attacks
Synthetic audio, video, images, and text can be used to impersonate a real person or make a fraudulent message feel more credible. The FBI warns that AI-generated content can support targeted social engineering, spear phishing, business email compromise, and other fraud schemes. An attack may combine a deepfake with a compromised email account, a fake payment instruction, or a request for credentials rather than rely on a video alone.
That matters because employees may be accustomed to trusting an executive’s voice, a familiar caller ID, or a live meeting. None independently authenticates who is making a request. The Federal Reserve’s account of a separate attempted audio impersonation of Ferrari’s CEO illustrates a useful response: the recipient asked a personal question the CEO would know, exposing the fraud. But personal facts can be guessed or discovered, so this should be treated as an anecdote—not a dependable authentication method.
Where the risks show up
Payment approval and executive impersonation
Urgent requests to move money, change payment details, or bypass normal approval can exploit the authority associated with an executive. In the Arup case, a sophisticated CFO deepfake appeared in a video meeting and was reportedly used to persuade a finance employee to transfer $25 million. The practical lesson is to authenticate the request independently and follow normal payment controls, even when the requester appears on camera.
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Barr also cited a 2024 business.com survey in which over 10 percent of companies reported deepfake fraud attempts. This is a survey figure cited in his April 2025 speech, not a government count of incidents across businesses.
Hiring and access to company systems
The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Complaint Center report describes online job interviews involving voice spoofing or possible voice deepfakes; in some cases, lip movements and audio did not align. The report says the apparent objective is generally access to private networks rather than direct financial loss. It also records almost $13 million in reported losses to AI-involved employment-type scams in 2025. That amount covers AI-involved employment scams, not deepfake cases alone, and complaint data do not represent every incident.
Recruiting teams should treat identity and interview irregularities as a reason to follow established verification and escalation procedures, not as conclusive proof of fraud. A candidate who passes a video interview has not thereby authenticated their identity or established that a device is safe to connect to company systems.
Investment and brand impersonation
The FBI’s 2025 report describes investment scams using AI-generated videos and voices of celebrities, CEOs, or other trusted figures to promote fraudulent opportunities. Familiarity with the person in a clip does not validate the investment, its promoter, or the destination for funds.
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The broader impersonation problem is substantial: the FTC says consumers reported nearly $1 billion in losses to business impersonators in 2025. That regulator figure concerns business impersonation broadly; it does not establish how many losses involved deepfakes.
Disputes over genuine evidence
Synthetic media can also weaken trust in authentic material. The FBI warns that people may challenge genuine photographs, body-camera recordings, surveillance footage, or other evidence as fake. The reverse is also possible: increasingly convincing synthetic content may be harder to identify. This is a risk of uncertainty, not evidence that any particular recording has been manipulated.
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Use process—not media realism—to verify sensitive requests
Set a clear rule: unusual, urgent, or high-value requests involving money, credentials, or access must pass normal approval steps and be verified through a second channel whose contact details were obtained independently. Do not use a phone number, link, or reply address supplied in the suspicious message as the verification route.
- Do not treat caller ID, a familiar voice, a live video call, or a message from an executive’s account as sufficient identity proof.
- For payments, independently confirm the request and any changed payment instructions, and require the approvals your organization normally uses.
- For access or credential requests, use established identity and account-recovery procedures rather than exceptions made during a call or interview.
- Train finance, helpdesk, recruiting, and executive-support staff to recognize urgency, unusual channels, credential requests, and interview inconsistencies—and to know how to escalate concerns.
- Use MFA and monitor accounts for suspicious activity. A FIDO2 hardware security key can support MFA, but it does not detect deepfakes or prevent every social-engineering attack.
- Maintain an incident-response plan, share relevant threat information, and report suspected compromise promptly. Preserve relevant messages and records while following counsel and incident-response procedures.
Detection tools may add useful signals, but they should not be the sole basis for deciding whether media is authentic. The official sources cited here do not establish a detector with guaranteed accuracy. When comparing tools or services, examine which workflow they cover, whether they verify identity through a separate channel, how they integrate with approvals and MFA, how they handle false positives and accessibility, what evidence supports performance against current synthetic media, how they retain data, and what operational burden they add.
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Read survey figures in context
Two often-cited findings do not measure the same thing. Barr’s April 2025 Federal Reserve speech cited a business.com survey in which over 10 percent of companies reported deepfake fraud attempts in 2024. IT Pro reported a Gartner finding that 62% of organizations had experienced a deepfake attack involving social engineering or automated processes in a September 2025 survey. The latter is secondary reporting, and the differing dates and survey descriptions do not support an apples-to-apples comparison or a prevalence estimate for all businesses.
Quick Recap
Sources
- FBI, “Oversight of the FBI Cyber Division” (March 29, 2022), on synthetic-content-enabled attacks, trust risks, and mitigation.
- Federal Reserve Board, Michael S. Barr, “Speech by Governor Barr on cybersecurity in the banking system” (April 17, 2025), on the Arup and Ferrari examples and layered controls.
- Federal Trade Commission, “FTC Data Show People Reported Losing $3.5 Billion to Imposter Scams in 2025” (June 2026), including reported business-impersonation losses.
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, “2025 IC3 Annual Report” (released 2026), on AI-involved employment and investment scam patterns.
- Kate O’Flaherty, IT Pro, “Deepfake business risks are growing – here’s what leaders need to know” (February 13, 2026), including secondary reporting of the Gartner survey.
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