Deepfake and synthetic-media attacks use AI-generated voice or video — as in the US$25.6M Arup video-call fraud and the North Korean fake-IT-worker schemes — sometimes in real time on a live call, to impersonate an executive, colleague, or job candidate convincingly enough to bypass the human instinct to verify identity by sight or sound. This is the fastest-growing family in this library, and includes the largest single-incident loss documented on this site.
An unidentified impersonator used an AI-cloned voice and a hacked personal-contacts list to pose as White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
DAA Singaporean businessman transferred at least S$4.9 million after WhatsApp and email lures citing the Strait of Hormuz crisis drew him into a deepfake.
DAA Bengaluru retiree lost Rs 6.88 lakh after an AI-generated deepfake Facebook video falsely showed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman endorsing a fake.
DAAn attacker impersonated LastPass CEO Karim Toubba with an AI voice clone over WhatsApp, but the targeted employee spotted the red flags, ignored it.
DAKnowBe4 unknowingly hired a North Korean operative for a software engineering role after he passed four video interviews using an AI-enhanced stock photo.
DAThe FBI's IC3 issued a December 2024 public advisory detailing how criminals use AI-generated text, images, voice cloning.
DATreasury/OFAC sanctioned North Korean Ministry of National Defense and Munitions Industry Department front companies in Laos, China.
DATwo New Jersey men ran US "laptop farms" and shell companies that let North Korean IT workers pose as American remote employees at 100+ US firms.
DAA Brighton-area kitchen fitter lost roughly £76,000, including four loans he was pressured into taking out.
DAToronto podcast-analytics company CoHost spent two months and seven interview rounds with a candidate later revealed as an AI-fabricated persona whose.
DAA finance employee in Arup's Hong Kong office wired HK$200M (~US$25.6M) after a video conference in which the CFO and colleagues were all AI-generated.
DABinance CCO Patrick Hillmann claimed scammers built an AI deepfake "hologram" of him from his TV interview footage and used it in live Zoom calls.
DAAn interstate Indian gang used AI-generated "eye-blink" deepfake videos made from stolen social-media photos to fool Aadhaar's facial-liveness e-KYC.
DAHours before Maharashtra's 2024 assembly election polling, BJP-amplified audio clips purporting to catch opposition leaders Supriya Sule and Nana Patole.
The Arup Hong Kong deepfake CFO video call (US$25.6M), the LastPass employee who caught an AI voice deepfake impersonating CEO Karim Toubba, and the S$4.9 million Singapore deepfake Zoom call impersonating Prime Minister Lawrence Wong all used a cloned voice or face on a live call to try to authorize a transfer.
KnowBe4 unknowingly hiring a North Korean fake IT worker using an AI-enhanced photo, the OFAC sanctions against DPRK front companies behind fake-persona remote IT-worker fraud, and the Massachusetts laptop-farm scheme using shell companies for North Korean IT workers all placed a fabricated remote-worker identity inside a real company payroll.
The deepfake Martin Lewis and Elon Musk investment scam that cost a Brighton man £76,000, the Nirmala Sitharaman deepfake investment scam in Bengaluru, and the alleged Binance deepfake hologram listing-scam claim all used a fabricated video of a trusted public figure to promote a fake investment.
The AI-cloned "Bitcoin Bribery" audio targeting Maharashtra opposition leaders on election eve, the Susie Wiles AI voice impersonation using a hacked contact list, and the Ahmedabad Aadhaar deepfake e-KYC loan fraud all used cloned audio or a forged identity document rather than a live conversation to deceive the target.
Social Engineering Examples