Nano-lesson · usually takes 2–3 minutes

AI scams & deepfakes

When the language is perfect, and the voice sounds like the boss — but it's fake.

The video call that was fake

In 2024, an employee at the engineering firm Arup sat in a video call with his finance director and several colleagues — and afterwards transferred around £20 million. Everything looked genuine. But he was the only real person on the call: the rest were AI-generated copies. Scammers now use AI to write flawless emails, clone voices and fake entire video calls.

New rules of the game

Perfect language is no longer proof — spelling and grammar mistakes are disappearing thanks to AI.
A voice or video can be fake, even if it sounds/looks real.
The pressure is the same as ever: urgency, secrecy, money.

Flawless language — does that make it genuine?

From Sarah — Finance Director <sarah.finance@acmee-accounts.com>

Subject Confidential: please clear a payment before 3pm

No. AI writes perfect English without a single mistake, so “spot the typo” no longer works. Instead, look at the sender address (here acmee-accounts.com with two e's) and at the request itself — not the language.

Do this

always confirm unusual requests via a known channel (call back on a number you already know). Consider agreeing a secret safe word within the team for urgent payments — a word only you know.

Remember

Trust the process, not the voice — verify via a channel you choose yourself.

What the research says

AI-written phishing emails now achieve a ~54% click-through rate — on par with human experts, and far cheaper. “Spot the typo” no longer works; a callback on a number you already know does.

Heiding et al., Harvard 2024 · Arup case, Fortune/CNN 2024.

Question 1 of 3

On a video call, the “director” asks for an urgent transfer. The voice and face look completely real. What do you do?

Make the transfer — after all, you can see and hear that it's the boss Ask on the call whether the request is genuine Call the director afterwards on a number you already know, before doing anything

Question 2 of 3

An email from “HR” is in perfect English with the correct logo and your boss's name. What determines whether you can trust it?

The language — scam emails have spelling mistakes and clumsy phrasing The logo and signature The sender address — and whether the request is normal

Question 3 of 3

A voice on the phone sounds exactly like your boss and asks for a transfer. What protects you best?

Checking that the number calling is the boss's number Listening carefully to check if the voice sounds natural Hanging up and calling the boss back yourself — or using your agreed safe word

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