News2 sources
Trio accused of using deepfake CEOs and bogus lawyers to scam businesses out of $129 million
Help Net Security · By Sinisa Markovic ·
The Brief · written from 2 sources
- US federal prosecutors say businesses have lost more than $129M to scam calls using AI-generated voices that mimic company executives, over the 18 months since July 2024.
- A federal indictment alleges three men used deepfakes of company CEOs and law firm attorneys to trick employees into wiring money to accounts the group controlled.
- The indictment names Jacob Soall, 41, Sharon Hazan, 54, and Guy Sheetrit.
Why it matters
Voice and video deepfakes can convincingly impersonate executives, so payment instructions that arrive by phone or video call can no longer be trusted on sound or appearance alone.
Who’s affected
- Finance and accounts-payable teams that process wire transfers
- Businesses whose staff act on executive or legal-counsel payment requests
- #deepfake
- #fraud
- #voice-cloning
- #social-engineering
- #law-enforcement
Three men allegedly used deepfakes of company CEOs and law firm attorneys to trick employees into wiring more than $129 million to accounts the group controlled, the Justice Department said. The indictment names the three as Jacob Soall, 41, Sharon Hazan, 54, and Guy Sheetrit…
Timeline
US Justice Department announces indictment of three men over deepfake executive scam calls totaling $129M+
Techmeme
US federal prosecutors say businesses have lost $129M+ to scam calls using AI-generated voices to mimic company executives in the 18 months since July 2024 (Adeel Hassan/New York Times)
Help Net Security
Trio accused of using deepfake CEOs and bogus lawyers to scam businesses out of $129 million