Criminals used AI-powered voice generation software to impersonate a German CEO and fraudulently obtain €220,000 from a UK energy company subsidiary through a sophisticated phone scam in March.
In March, criminals used artificial intelligence-based voice generation software to impersonate the CEO of a German energy company and successfully defraud €220,000 ($243,000) from the company's UK subsidiary. The attackers called the UK CEO three times, with the voice technology successfully mimicking the German executive's accent and vocal patterns. During the first call, the fraudsters requested an urgent transfer to a Hungarian supplier within one hour, which the UK executive completed believing he was speaking to his boss. The criminals made a second call claiming the parent company had reimbursed the funds, then attempted a third fraudulent request. The UK executive became suspicious during the third call when the promised reimbursement hadn't arrived and the call came from an Austrian phone number, preventing a second payment. The stolen funds were transferred from the Hungarian bank account to Mexico and distributed to other locations. Euler Hermes Group SA, the company's insurer, covered the entire €220,000 claim. Cybersecurity experts described this as an unusual early case of AI being used in cybercrime, with the attackers likely using commercially available voice generation software. The police investigation has concluded without identifying any suspects.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed