Is Skynet really that far away? As the age of AI technology booms, so do opportunities to misuse it. From compromising pictures and videos of celebrities to fraudulent speeches of world leaders, deepfake technology has rapidly grown into one of the most daunting challenges for governments and organizations.

Businesses are at the greatest risk as far as this trend is concerned. In just the last year, 1 in 3 fraud events reported by organizations traced back to deepfake attacks.

This follows the exponential increase in the occurrence of deepfakes. With less than 8,000 reported in 2018, by early 2023 deepfakes numbered in the millions. And according to Onfido’s report Identity Fraud Report 2024, there has been a 3,000% increase year-over-year in 2023 of deepfake fraud attempts.

So how can organizations fight this trend in cybercrime? Let’s take a look at what a deepfake is and better understand how it can impact business payments.

What is a deepfake?

A deepfake is a synthetic video, image, or voice recording created via a specific type of machine learning known as deep learning. This is achieved by what is known as hidden layers, created by a neural network, designed to mimic the brain’s way of processing information.

In other words, this machine is fed examples, which then allows it to create its own examples using the information that was inputted. This differs from cutting and blending someone else’s face onto an existing image, as these AI models can adapt and evolve the deepfake until it is nearly indistinguishable from a real example.

With the definition established, let's take a look at why 2024 is shaping up to be the year of the deepfake.

A macro outlook on deepfakes and fraud

There have been several instances of deepfakes and social engineering fraud in the last few months. Earlier this month, a sophisticated financial fraud scheme cost a Hong Kong-based tech company over $25 million. The finance worker in question was on a video call with someone who looked and sounded exactly like the CFO, along with several other employees of his company. However, every single one of them was a highly successful deepfake.

Asked to make a “secret transaction”, he was initially suspicious of the invoice he received from the CFO, suspecting a phishing attempt. However, the video call with his coworkers assuaged those fears, so he went ahead and paid the requested amount. And thus the fraud was successful. The deepfake was only discovered after the employee checked in with the head office of his organization later on only to discover that he had been duped. And by then the damage was already done.  

Already there have been too many fraud attempts on B2B payments and the vendor supply chain, and many have already been successful without the use of deepfakes. In light of the attack on the Hong Kong-based tech company, it’s scary to think how these types of attacks will play out in the future leveraging deepfake technology, and how much easier these attacks will be for the fraudsters. This highlights the importance of having a system in place for verifying and flagging potentially fraudulent payments from both inside and outside an organization. 

Ward off deepfakes with Trustmi

As deepfakes and other AI tools become more and more prevalent, there is increased pressure on organizations to ensure their B2B payments are secure. Businesses will invest more into AI technologies that can fight deepfakes and help companies discern fact from fiction when it comes to paying the right vendor and avoiding fraud.

Trustmi protects and streamlines the B2B payment process with an AI-powered platform, designed to provide exactly what each organization is looking for to secure their payment processes, and securely onboard and manage their vendors. 

It's time to conquer the chaos of business payments. Is your organization ready?

‍