Fraudsters used CEO's voice using AI, gained Rs. 1.75 crore

That’s according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported the first ever case of AI-based voice fraud - aka vishing (short for “voice phishing”) - that cost a company $243,000.

In a sign that audio deepfakes are becoming eerily accurate, criminals sought the help of commercially available voice-generating AI software to impersonate the boss of a German parent company that owns a UK-based energy firm.

The company CEO, hearing the familiar slight German accent and voice patterns of his boss, is said to have suspected nothing, the report said. But not only was the money not reimbursed, the fraudsters posed as the German CEO to ask for another urgent money transfer. This time, however, the British CEO refused to make the payment.

Resulted, the funds the CEO transferred to Hungary were eventually moved to Mexico and other locations. Authorities are yet to determine the culprits behind the cybercrime operation. However, the firm was insured by Euler Hermes Group, which covered the entire cost of the payment. The incident supposedly happened in March, and the names of the company and the parties involved were not disclosed, citing ongoing investigation.

AI-based impersonation attacks are just the beginning of what could be major headaches for businesses and organizations in the future. Here in this case, the voice-generation software was able to successfully imitate the German CEO’s voice. But it’s unlikely to remain an isolated case of a crime perpetrated using AI.

Artificial Intelligence is any task that is completed by a program or a machine. It is designed by humans to reduce the burden of work and increase the efficiency. AI is designed to carry out tasks like Voice recognition, learning, planning and solving problems. It gives a new direction to look at the existing problems. Nowadays it's becoming accessible to all.

Back in July, Israel National Cyber Directorate issued warning of a “new type of cyber attack” that leverages AI technology to impersonate senior enterprise executives, including instructing employees to perform transactions such as money transfers and other malicious activity on the network.

The fact that an AI-related crime of this precise nature has already claimed its first victim in the wild should be a cause for concern, as it complicates matters for businesses that are ill-equipped to detect them.

They employed a commercially available voice-generating AI engine to impersonate the person and rang up the chief executive of a UK-based energy firm he owned. It is a case of 'vishing' (voice phising) scam

The AI mimicked the voice of the German CEO so accurately (with exact same accent and pattern) that the English executive was led into believing that he was actually speaking to his boss, not any fraudster.

Not to mention, the attacker even promised to reimburse the funds soon, eventually persuading the target to wire the requested funds into the so-called 'Hungarian' supplier's account. After the first transfer, the fraudsters placed a request for another wire transfer, but the English CEO refused.

He later discovered the scam, which is now being investigated by the authorities.

They are looking for the culprits but there's no trace to follow; naturally the money has been moved from the original Hungarian to Mexico and other locations.