A recent Wall Street Journal report has highlighted how, in March this year, a group of hackers were able to use AI software to mimic an energy company CEO's voice in order to steal £201,000. Reports indicate that the CEO of an unnamed UK-based energy company received a phone call from someone that he believed to be the German chief executive of the parent company. The person on the end of the phone ordered the CEO of the UK-based energy company to immediately transfer €220,000 (£201,000) into the bank account of a Hungarian supplier. The voice was reported to have been so accurate in its sound, that the CEO of the energy company even recognised what he thought was the subtleties of the German accent of his boss, and even "melody" of the accent. The call was so convincing that the energy company made the transfer of funds as requested.

Criminals have impersonated a chief executive's voice using artificial intelligence-based software to deceive an unnamed UK-based CEO into making a fraudulent transfer of £200,000 according to a report in the WSJ. WSJ's Catherine Stupp reported that: "The CEO of a UK-based energy firm thought he was speaking on the phone with his boss, the chief executive of the firm's German parent company, who asked him to send the funds to a Hungarian supplier. The caller said the request was urgent, directing the executive to pay within an hour, according to the company's insurance firm, Euler Hermes Group SA. Euler Hermes declined to name the victim companies." Rüdiger Kirsch, a fraud expert at Euler Hermes, a subsidiary of Munich-based financial services company Allianz SE was reported as saying that the UK CEO recognised his boss' slight German accent and the melody of his voice on the phone.