CEO fraud with a cloned voice

An urgent, confidential payment request appears to come from a senior executive, sometimes with a cloned voice note to make it convincing. The aim is to get finance staff to skip normal checks.

What it looks like

Work email + voice note · Your CEO

Confidential — we're closing an acquisition today. I need you to wire the deposit to the account below before 4pm. Voice note attached so you know it's me.

How it usually ends

The voice note was cloned from a conference talk. Your company's money is gone; the bank recovers almost none of it.

Red flags

Reply-to differs from sender
Voice note shows clone markers
Secrecy + deadline + new beneficiary

A real case

WPP’s CEO was impersonated in 2024 with a public photo on WhatsApp, a voice clone and YouTube footage in a Teams meeting. Alert staff stopped it.

What to do

Verify any urgent payment request through a channel you already trust.
Require dual approval and a call-back for new payees.
Urgency plus secrecy is the core warning sign.

Could you spot it in the moment?

In Painted Sky you’re born at random somewhere on Earth and live a whole life — and this scam is one of the fakes that can find you. Make the call yourself, then replay the same life with a lens that shows what was fake.

Play Painted Sky — free →