Deepfakes: Coming soon to a company near you

Deepfakes as credit risks

It’s not just cybersecurity experts who are warning of the corporate risk from deepfakes. In May, credit ratings firm Moody’s issued a warning about deepfakes, saying they create new credit risks. The Moody’s report details a handful of attempted deepfake scams, including faked video calls, that have targeted the financial sector in the past two years.

“Financial losses attributed to deepfake frauds are rapidly emerging as a prominent threat from this advancing technology,” the report says. “Deepfakes can be used to create fraudulent videos of bank officials, company executives, or government functionaries to direct financial transactions or carry out payment frauds.”

Deepfake scams are already happening, but the size of the problem is difficult to estimate, says Jake Williams, a faculty member at IANS Research, a cybersecurity research and advisory firm. In some cases, the scams go unreported to save the victim’s reputation, and in other cases, victims of other types of scams may blame deepfakes as a convenient cover for their actions, he says.