How to protect your business against deepfake scams

Deepfake technology has made significant advancements thanks to the progress in artificial intelligence (AI), enabling scammers to replicate a person’s appearance and mimic their voice in mere minutes or even seconds of video footage.

This deceptive technology can have disastrous repercussions from financial loss to reputational damage.

Earlier this year, we saw the engineering giant Arup get targeted by an elaborate scam resulting in a total loss of over £20 million.

According to a study conducted by Medius, 80 per cent of UK finance workers say they would make a payment to a supplier if they were video called by their CEO or CFO.

With deepfake software at play it is making it more difficult to know what is authentic and what its fraudulent.

So, how can you protect yourself from falling into the trap of scammers?

How to train your employees to spot scams

It’s important that you educate yourself and your team on the existence of deepfakes. Hypervigilance is key to stopping these scams.

If you receive any unusual requests, then a sceptical approach should be applied. We’re always told don’t believe everything we see on the internet – well this applies now more than ever.

A common misconception is that deepfakes are limited to video as they’re the most widespread, however, deepfakes can also be created using photos and audio.

Teach your employees the key ways to spot fraudulent scams, for instance:

• Spelling and grammar mistakes can be a telling sign.
• Look for inconsistencies such as unnatural facial movements, mismatched audio or even just inconstancies to any previous interaction with the person.
• Be aware of any video or audio source from a suspicious or unknown source.

Utilise detection systems

With deepfakes becoming a common issue, it has led to the creation of deepfake detection systems.

You can utilise these systems to detect possible manipulation of the content and analyse patterns.

While it can be a useful tool, the technologies still need improvement, so they are not 100 per cent accurate, but then again neither is the human eye.

Verification processes

Implementing strong verification processes is important for any transaction, but particularly for high-value ones.

Consider using multi-layered authentication and ensuring requests are confirmed through secure channels.

The more ways you make a person need to prove who they are, the more difficult you will make it for the scammer to impersonate the individual.

Stay informed and report scammers

As technology changes, so will the ways we have to protect ourselves against scams.

You will need to keep up to date on the latest fraud schemes to see how other businesses may have been targeted and learn from their experiences.

If you come across any suspicious activity, make sure you report it to the appropriate authorities so it can be investigated and also flag it to the rest of your team so they can stay alert to other attempts.

Deepfake threats are becoming more sophisticated, and scammers are finding new ways to infiltrate even the most secure systems. You don’t want to be caught out and risk the financial repercussions of falling for the scam – so stay vigilant and proactive.

If you have any concerns about protecting your business against scams, our team are here to support you so get in touch.