Your phone buzzes. It’s your CEO. She has the same accent and the same clipped tone. She needs a wire sent before the bank closes. You send it. Later, you learn the voice on the line was never hers.

Welcome to the world of deepfake scams. They are no longer rare.

A deepfake scam uses AI-generated voices or faces to pose as a manager, supplier, or partner. The goal is simple: get an employee to send money willingly. The best defense is just as simple. Verify every payment request through a second channel.

At Zia Networks, we help small businesses close these gaps every day. You do not need a security team to do it. In this guide, you will learn how the fraud works, why small businesses are easy targets, and which simple controls stop it.

What Are Deepfake CEO Scams?

Deepfake CEO fraud is a scam where criminals use fake audio or video to pose as a company’s CEO. They then trick an employee into sending money or sharing private data. The fake voice or face creates urgency, so the employee skips normal checks.

Security experts see it as the next step after business email compromise (BEC), where criminals impersonate executives by email. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported $2.9 billion in BEC losses in 2023. Email fraud already worked well. Now AI makes it more convincing.

Think of it like a forged signature. For years, businesses trusted a request because it “sounded like the boss.” AI has made that kind of trust easy to fake.

Who is involved in a deepfake attack?

Knowing the players makes the threat easier to spot:

• The impersonated person: usually a CEO, CFO, owner, or trusted vendor.
• The target: an employee with payment authority, such as an accounts payable clerk, office manager, or bookkeeper.
• The tool: a voice-cloning or face-swapping AI model, often trained on public videos, podcasts, or social media clips.
• The channel: a phone call, video meeting, voicemail, or a chat message on WhatsApp or Teams.
• The payout: a wire transfer, ACH payment, gift cards, or cryptocurrency.

How Do Deepfake Scams Actually Work?

Most attacks follow five steps: research, cloning, a made-up story, an urgent request, and a fast cash-out. Criminals collect public audio and video of an executive. Then they train an AI tool on those clips and contact an employee about an “emergency.”

It looks less like a Hollywood movie and more like an ordinary workday. That is what makes it so dangerous.

The five steps of an attack

1. Research. Criminals study your company on LinkedIn, your website, and in press mentions. You notice nothing.
2. Cloning. They feed audio or video of your executive into AI tools. Again, you notice nothing.
3. Setup. They send a “heads-up” email or text, often from a spoofed address. It mentions a “confidential deal.”
4. The call. They phone or video call using the cloned voice or face. The request is rushed, secret, and high-pressure.
5. Cash-out. They move the money through several accounts within hours. As a result, the wire is hard to recall.

Why cloning is so easy

The source material is everywhere. A conference talk, a podcast interview, a marketing video, or even a voicemail greeting can work. Researchers have shown that a short, clean audio clip is enough for a convincing copy.

That is why voice cloning scams are growing fast. The cost of entry fell from “nation-state resources” to “a laptop and a subscription.”

The psychology behind the scam

Technology is only half of the attack. Pressure does the rest. Scammers pull the same four levers every time:

• Authority: “This comes from the top.”
• Urgency: “The bank closes in 30 minutes.”
• Secrecy: “Don’t tell anyone yet. It’s an acquisition.”
• Flattery: “You’ve always come through for me, and I need you now.”

If a request uses three or more of these levers, treat it as hostile until you prove otherwise.

Real Deepfake Scam Cases and What They Cost

Documented cases show that deepfake fraud has cost companies from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of dollars per incident. Voice-only attacks appeared in 2019. By 2024, criminals used full video calls with several fake people.

• 2019, UK energy company: An executive heard what he believed was his German parent company’s CEO. He sent about €220,000 (roughly $243,000), according to The Wall Street Journal.
• 2024, Arup (Hong Kong): An employee joined a video call where the CFO and several colleagues were all AI-generated. Arup confirmed a loss of roughly $25 million across 15 transactions.
• 2024, Ferrari: An executive received messages and a call that imitated the CEO’s voice. The attempt failed because the executive asked a question only the real CEO could answer.
• 2024, WPP: Scammers set up a fake Teams meeting using a cloned voice of CEO Mark Read. Reports say the attempt was unsuccessful.

Notice the pattern. A person who paused and verified stopped both failed attacks. Software did not.

Why the Arup case should worry small businesses

Arup is a large, sophisticated firm with a real finance team. Even so, it lost millions. So a ten-person company with one bookkeeper faces an even higher risk.

The threat is also growing. Deloitte’s Center for Financial Services projects that generative AI could push US fraud losses to $40 billion by 2027, up from $12.3 billion in 2023. That figure is a forecast, not a certainty. However, the direction is clear.

Why Small Businesses Are Easy Targets for Deepfake Scams

Small businesses often lack two-person payment approval and a dedicated fraud team. Employees also know the owner and tend to follow instructions quickly. Large companies lose money to deepfakes despite their controls. Small companies lose money because they often have fewer controls to begin with.

Three weaknesses stand out.

The single-approver problem

In many small firms, one person can start and approve a wire. Fraudsters know this. If your office manager can move $40,000 after a call from the owner, that is exactly the gap they will target.

The “everyone knows the boss” problem

In a 15-person firm, everyone knows the owner’s voice. Usually, that is a strength. Against a voice clone, though, it creates false confidence.

The public footprint problem

Owners are often the face of the brand. You can find them in welcome videos, local podcasts, Facebook posts, and LinkedIn clips. Each one is training material for a cloning tool.

Many AI scams targeting businesses succeed, but not because the fake is perfect. They succeed because the target never imagined the call could be fake.

How to Detect Deepfakes on Calls and Video Meetings

Deepfakes often slip up in small ways. Look for awkward pauses, a flat tone, lips that lag behind the audio, odd blinking, and blurry face edges. However, spotting these signs by eye and ear is unreliable. The stronger approach is to verify the request through a second, independent channel.

Many people search for a checklist on how to detect deepfakes. Here is an honest one. These signs are fading as the technology improves, so never rely on them alone.

Audio red flags

• A short delay before answers, especially to unexpected questions
• A calm voice during a supposed emergency
• Robotic breathing, no background noise, or sudden cutoffs
• Scripted, evenly paced speech

Video red flags

• Lips that lag slightly behind the audio
• Blur or shimmer around the hairline, jaw, or glasses
• Shadows that do not move naturally when the head turns
• Reluctance to turn sideways, wave a hand in front of the face, or move the camera

Behavioral red flags

Behavior is more reliable than technical clues. Scammers can keep polishing their fakes. However, they cannot make a suspicious request follow your company’s rules. Watch for:

• A push to skip the normal approval process
• A demand for secrecy from coworkers
• New bank account details or changed payment instructions
• A refusal to be called back on a known number
• Pressure to act before an artificial deadline

How to Stop Deepfake Scams With One Simple Phone Call

The best defense is a mandatory callback rule. The employee hangs up and calls the requester back on a number already on file. Add a private code word and a second approver for extra protection.

The principle is simple. Never verify a request on the channel it arrived on. If a fraudster controls the call, they also control any number or “confirmation” they offer during it.

A five-step verification routine

1. Pause. Say, “Let me confirm and call you right back.” A real executive will agree. A scammer will push back.
2. Hang up and call back. Use a saved contact or your company directory. Never use a number from the message.
3. Use a challenge phrase. Agree on a private code word or question with leadership. Ferrari’s thwarted attempt shows how well a personal question works.
4. Require a second approver. No single person should authorize a transfer above a set limit.
5. Log and report. Record the request and report every suspicious attempt, even the ones you stop.

Words your team can use

Give employees this sentence in writing:

“I’m following our payment policy. I’ll verify this on your direct line and process it right after. It will take five minutes.”

When the policy says no, nobody has to feel awkward about challenging the boss.

Protect the executive side too

Leaders can reduce the material criminals can use:

• Limit long, clean voice and video samples posted publicly.
• Remove personal phone numbers and direct lines from public pages.
• Use voicemail greetings that do not include a long, natural speaking sample.
• Tighten social media privacy settings.

You cannot erase your public presence. Still, you can stop making it easy.

Payment Controls Every Small Business Needs

Strong payment controls stop fraud even when an employee believes the fake. Good controls assume someone will eventually be fooled. They make sure one fooled person cannot move the money alone.

Start with these:

• Dual approval above a set amount: Two people must authorize large payments. This is easy to set up.
• A 24-hour hold on new payee details: This gives you time to catch fraud before the funds leave. It is also easy.
• A verified vendor list: Only pre-approved accounts get paid easily. Setup is moderate.
• Daily wire limits set with your bank: These cap the damage of any single incident. This is easy too.
• An out-of-band callback requirement: Every unusual request gets confirmed independently. It takes little effort.
• Positive Pay or payee verification: Your bank checks payments against what you authorized. Setup is moderate.

Ask your bank which of these it offers. Many business accounts support transfer limits and dual authorization. However, they are often switched off by default.

The technology layer

Policies carry most of the weight, but your technical setup matters too. Business email compromise often sets up the call, so a secure inbox lowers your risk:

• Turn on multi-factor authentication for email, banking, and cloud logins.
• Configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC so criminals cannot easily spoof your domain.
• Use email filtering that flags lookalike domains.
• Keep devices and software patched.
• Restrict who can see executive calendars and travel plans. Criminals time attacks around absences.

A trusted IT partner earns their keep here. Zia Networks helps small and mid-sized organizations lock down email authentication, enforce multi-factor authentication, and build layered defenses. As a result, a convincing voice on the phone is not the only thing standing between a scammer and your bank account.

Train Your Team to Spot Deepfake Scams

Deepfake awareness training should be short, scenario-based, and repeated. Run employees through fake boss call scenarios. Role-play the callback response. Reward people who verify, whether the request turns out to be real or not.

Training that says “be careful” does not work. Training that rehearses exactly what to do does.

What a good 30-minute session covers

• Play a demonstration voice clone so staff hear how convincing it sounds.
• Role-play a fake CEO request and let employees practice saying, “I’ll call you back.”
• Review the red flags: urgency, secrecy, new account details, and bypassed approvals.
• Clarify who can approve what, and who to alert when something feels off.

Make verification safe

Fear is the biggest obstacle. Employees worry that questioning the boss could cost them their jobs. Remove that fear. Tell your team that nobody will ever be punished for verifying a request. The only mistake is skipping the check.

What to Do If You Already Sent Money

If you suspect fraud, call your bank right away and ask for a wire recall. Then report the incident to the FBI’s IC3 at ic3.gov. Speed matters. The best chance of freezing or recovering funds is within the first 24 to 72 hours.

Follow this order:

1. Call your bank’s fraud department. Ask for a wire recall or ACH reversal, and ask them to contact the receiving bank.
2. File a complaint with the IC3. For large, fast-reported transfers, the FBI can use its Financial Fraud Kill Chain to help freeze funds.
3. Preserve evidence. Save call logs, emails, texts, recordings, and transaction records. Do not delete anything.
4. Lock down accounts. Change passwords and check email forwarding rules. Attackers often hide in the inbox.
5. Notify your insurer. Check whether your policy covers social engineering or funds transfer fraud. Many standard policies exclude it.
6. Tell your team. Explain what happened without blaming anyone.

Outside the United States, report to your national cybercrime authority and your bank in the same order.

FAQs – About Deepfake Scams

What is the most common way deepfake scams reach small businesses?

Most start with a phone call or voice message that follows a spoofed or hacked email. Criminals often send a “heads-up” email first. Then they call with a cloned voice to add credibility. Video-call attacks are rarer but growing.

Can a deepfake voice fool my own employees?

Yes. People naturally trust familiar voices. Add urgency and authority, and even careful employees can be fooled.

How can I quickly tell if a call is a deepfake?

Listening alone is rarely enough. Instead, hang up and call the person back on a trusted number. You can also ask a pre-agreed challenge question.

Does business insurance cover deepfake scams?

Not always. Standard crime or cyber policies may not cover payments an employee made willingly after being tricked. Social engineering fraud coverage often fills that gap. Review your policy with your broker.

What should I do first if I’m targeted?

Do not act on the request. Hang up, verify through a trusted channel, and tell your supervisor or IT support. If money has already left your account, call your bank immediately.

Your 7-Day Action Plan

You do not need to fix everything at once. Start with easy wins that stop most fraud.

• Day 1: Write a one-page policy that requires a callback for any payment request made by voice or video.
• Day 2: Set up dual approval and daily limits with your bank.
• Day 3: Create a code word or question with your leadership team.
• Day 4: Turn on multi-factor authentication for email and banking.
• Day 5: Review the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC settings on your domain.
• Day 6: Run a 30-minute drill with a pretend CEO call.
• Day 7: Ask your insurer about social engineering coverage.

Conclusion

Every reported case teaches the same lesson. Money moved because someone trusted a familiar voice. Attacks failed because someone verified. Deepfake scams will keep getting harder to spot. Even so, a simple callback rule, dual approval, and a trained team can beat them.

Start with the seven-day plan above. Each step is low-cost.

Not sure where your business is exposed?

Zia Networks can review your email security, payment process, and team readiness, then recommend practical fixes. We serve small businesses in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and across New Mexico. Call (505) 428-6544 or book a free IT review before a scammer books one for you.