A new report warns that AI-cloned voices and fake video calls are being used to impersonate bosses and trick staff into sending money. Here is what to know.
A new report from the group CyberPeace warns that criminals are using AI-made voices and fake video calls to pose as company executives and talk employees into moving money. The weak spot is not a hacked computer. It is a worker who trusts a familiar face or voice that turns out to be fake.
The report, released in October 2026, is titled AI-Generated Deepfakes and Voice Cloning Targeting Indian Enterprises. A deepfake is a video or audio clip that uses AI to make someone appear to say or do things they never did. The report describes a simple scenario: a finance employee gets an urgent video call from the managing director, who says to send money now and keep it quiet.
A real case happened in Hong Kong in 2024. An employee at the engineering firm Arup reportedly sent about HK$200 million across 15 transactions after a video call with AI-made copies of colleagues.
India's reported cyber fraud losses rose from ₹7,465.1 crore in 2023 to ₹22,845.7 crore in 2024, an increase of about 206%. Those figures cover all cyber fraud, not just deepfakes. The report does not give a national loss figure for AI voice or video fraud.
Still, the attempts are real. In 2024, Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal disclosed an attempt using a cloned voice, which a senior executive reportedly stopped. The National Stock Exchange warned about fake clips of its chief executive. The Reserve Bank of India warned about deepfake videos of its governor promoting investment schemes.
People are also poor at spotting fakes. An iProov study of 2,000 people in the United Kingdom and United States found only 0.1% correctly labeled every real and fake sample. It is not an India-specific result, but it shows that trusting your own eyes and ears is not enough.
Finance and accounts staff, executives and owners are most exposed, especially in businesses that approve payments by phone, video call or message. Anyone whose company moves money on a quick request from the boss should pay attention. Firms where payments need a formal check by more than one person are in a better position, though no setup is perfect.
The alert box above lists the steps. The core idea is to confirm the request through a separate channel you already trust, not through the call itself.
The report points to Ferrari as an example of what works. An attempted impersonation there was reportedly stopped when the caller was asked a question only the real executive could answer. The report does not claim that such a question is foolproof. Its point is that independent checking can stop a scam before money leaves the account.
A familiar face or voice on a call is not proof of identity, so confirm any money request through a separate channel before you act.
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