Signal Deepfake executive impersonation moves from attempt to realised loss

Summary

Deepfake impersonation of senior executives has moved from failed attempts to confirmed financial losses. In May 2024, attackers used deepfakes to target the chief executives of Accenture and of WPP, the world's largest advertising group. Both of those attempts failed. The engineering firm Arup, however, lost $25.5 million in a similar scheme. Losses from deepfake fraud reached $200 million in the first quarter of 2025 alone, and total AI-enabled fraud losses are expected to climb to $40 billion by 2027.