Finance execs are the new targets of deepfake videos

It’s no secret that AI-generated hyper-realistic impersonations known as deepfakes have become more sophisticated. 

Last year, it was a wake-up call when a finance worker was duped by a fraudulent AI-digitally manipulated video featuring a deepfake of the firm’s CFO ordering money transfers that cost the Hong Kong-based company millions. But now fraudsters are imitating prominent finance professionals on Instagram. 

In a new report, Fortune’s Jim Edwards details how a video ad campaign on Instagram used a convincing deepfake of Goldman Sachs executives Abby Joseph Cohen and David Kostin. The goal was to tempt amateurs who want to get rich quickly into a stock-buying WhatsApp group. 

“Abby Joseph Cohen is a legend in the world of investing,” Edwards writes. “She was chief investment strategist at Goldman Sachs until 2008, when she moved to the bank’s Global Markets Institute, before retiring from Goldman in 2021. Currently, she is a professor at Columbia Business School.”

So it was most likely a surprise for retail investors to see Joseph Cohen in a video on their Instagram feed with a compelling offer: “We have found three severely undervalued technology stocks. Join my group now to get it immediately. Anyone who owns these three stocks in the next five years can retire comfortably.” 

The video is fake, Edwards confirmed with Goldman Sachs, and it was seemingly generated by AI. “There should always be caution exercised around any unverified communication purporting to come from a Goldman Sachs employee,” the bank said. And Meta, owner of Instagram, took down the video.

The deepfake was so convincing even people who have met Joseph Cohen in person likely would think it was real, at least at first glance. But she isn’t the only financial expert who's a target.

“There is a whole raft of fake AI video chief investment officers making the rounds on social media right now,” Edwards warns. You can read the complete report here. 

In an era of deepfakes, cybersecurity is indeed top of mind for CFOs who are collaborating with chief information security officers to mitigate risk. A recent prediction from Deloitte’s Center for Financial Services said generative AI could amplify deepfakes and enable fraud losses to reach $40 billion by 2027 in the U.S.

From the workplace to social media, deepfakes are becoming more pervasive. But companies can use AI to beat fraudsters at their own game.

Have a good weekend. See you on Monday.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com