Forget email: Scammers use CEO voice 'deepfakes' to con workers into wiring cash ZDNet

Criminals are using AI-generated audio to impersonate a CEO's voice and con subordinates into transferring funds to a scammer's account. So-called deepfake voice attacks could be the next frontier in a scam that's cost US businesses almost $2bn over the past two years using fraudulent email. The Wall Street Journal reports that the CEO of an unnamed UK-based energy company thought he was talking on the phone with his boss, the CEO of the German parent company, who'd asked him to urgently transfer €220,000 ($243,000) to a Hungarian supplier. However, the UK CEO was in fact taking instructions from a scammer who'd used AI-powered voice technology to impersonate the German CEO. It's the voice equivalent of deepfake videos that are causing alarm for their potential to manipulate public opinion and cause social discord.