Ad agency boss target of deepfake scam

The CEO of WPP, a large advertising group, has been targeted with a deepfake scam.

As reported by The Guardian, the head of WPP, Mark Read, sent an email to the firm’s leadership detailing the attempted fraud.

According to the email, the scammers created a fake WhatsApp account with a publicly accessible image of Read which they then used to set up a Microsoft Teams meeting with another senior WPP executive.

During the call, the fraudsters used a voice clone of the CEO alongside YouTube footage of Read, while impersonating him in the chat window of the meeting.

It asked the agency leader to set up a new business in an attempt to solicit money and personal details.

“Fortunately, the attackers were not successful,” Read penned in the email. “We all need to be vigilant to the techniques that go beyond emails to take advantage of virtual meetings, AI and deepfakes.”

In a statement to The Guardian, a WPP spokesperson confirmed the attack to be ineffective: “Thanks to the vigilance of our people, including the executive concerned, the incident was prevented.”

It is not clear when the attack took place.

“We have seen increasing sophistication in the cyber-attacks on our colleagues, and those targeted at senior leaders in particular,” Read wrote in the email.

He also listed red flags for staff to look out for, including requests for passports, money, and any mention of a “secret acquisition, transaction or payment that no one else knows about.”

“Just because the account has my photo doesn’t mean it’s me.”

How misinformation can impact businesses

Fraudsters use publicly available images, videos, audio and tone-of-voice in written form to create convincing clones, or ‘deepfakes’, of individuals using GenAI.

With the rise of the technology, deepfake scams such as Read’s are predicted to appear more and more frequently this year.

Politicians in particular are vulnerable to such scams with elections happening in over 60 countries this year.

Deepfakes of US President Joe Biden, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and more have hit social media or even been used in calls to potential voters to sway electoral votes.

Recently, TI heard from Microsoft’s chief security advisor on how AI firms should take more accountability for mitigating the spread of misleading deepfakes, and talked to cyber security experts to hear how they are using technology to tackle the spread of GenAI-based misinformation.