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16Oct
Deepfake Attacks: How to Recognize a Fake and Protect Yourself from Scammers
To protect yourself from deepfake attacks, verify the identity of your interlocutor through an independent communication channel, do not transfer money based on voice or video requests without confirmation, and use multi-factor authentication. Modern technologies allow scammers to convincingly fake a person’s voice, face, and behavior, so even a realistic video call does not guarantee the authenticity of the interlocutor.
What is deepfake and how do such attacks work?
Deepfake is artificially created or altered audio, photo, or video content in which machine learning algorithms imitate the appearance, voice, or actions of a real person.
Scammers use this technology to steal money, obtain confidential information, blackmail, and spread disinformation.
How do scammers create deepfakes?
Malefactors do not always need special technical knowledge. Available AI tools allow automating a large part of the work.
A typical scheme includes several steps:
- Collect photographs, video recordings, or voice samples of a person from open sources.
- Use artificial intelligence algorithms to reproduce appearance or speech.
- Create a fake video, audio message, or organize a counterfeit video call.
- Pretend to be a relative, company manager, bank employee, or government official.
- Attempt to obtain money, passwords, confirmation codes, or account access.
The danger lies not only in the quality of the forgery. Scammers often create a situation where the person must make a decision immediately.
How common are deepfake attacks in 2026?
According to the 2026 Identity Fraud Report by Entrust, researchers analyzed over 1 billion identity verifications in 195 countries across more than 30 industries. The results showed that deepfake has become a noticeable tool of biometric fraud.
| Indicator | Result |
|---|---|
| Share of deepfake among biometric fraud attempts | 20% |
| Increase in attempts with fake selfies in 2025 | 58% |
| Annual growth of injection attacks | 40% |
| Volume of identity verifications analyzed | Over 1 billion |
These figures relate to the sample of Entrust identity verification systems, not all cases of internet fraud worldwide. Injection attacks do not always involve the use of deepfakes.
What types of deepfake attacks do scammers use?
Most often, malefactors try to substitute the identity trusted by the victim. The specific scenario depends on what data or funds they want to obtain.
| Type of Attack | How Scammers Act | Main Protection |
|---|---|---|
| Voice Cloning | Pretend to be a relative and urgently ask to transfer money | Call back on a known number |
| Deepfake Video | Pretend to be a manager or partner | Confirm instructions via a separate channel |
| Fake Advertisement | Use the face of a famous person to advertise investments | Verify official sources |
| Biometric Forgery | Try to bypass remote identity verification | Multi-level identity verification |
| Deepfake Blackmail | Threaten to spread edited intimate materials | Preserve evidence and contact police |
Why does a familiar person’s voice no longer guarantee their identity?
Speech synthesis algorithms can reproduce timbre, intonation, and manner of speaking. Because of this, a person sometimes hears a relative’s voice, even though they are actually talking to a scammer.
Messages about accidents, arrests, health problems, or urgent payment needs are especially dangerous. Such scenarios exploit fear and limit time for verification.
How to recognize deepfake video or fake voice?
Individual signs might arouse suspicion, but none alone proves forgery.
When watching a video, pay attention to:
- unnatural lip movements or mismatches between words and facial expressions;
- changes in facial contours when turning the head;
- unusual shadows, lighting, and reflections;
- distortions of glasses, hair, or accessories;
- unnatural pauses and intonation changes;
- requests to urgently transfer money or disclose secret data.
Important: modern deepfake may not have noticeable visual flaws. Meanwhile, poor internet or normal video artifacts do not necessarily mean the interlocutor is using a fake.
How to verify a suspicious video call?
The best is to verify the person and the circumstances of the request, not the image quality.
- End the suspicious call.
- Call the person on a number you used before.
- Ask a question the answer to which cannot be easily found on social networks.
- Verify information through another independent channel.
- Do not perform financial instructions before verification is complete.
Asking the interlocutor to turn their head or wave their hand is possible but not a reliable test. Some systems can alter images in real time.
How to protect yourself from deepfake fraud?
Personal security depends on identity verification rules, protecting accounts, and controlling public information.
First of all, take the following actions:
- Agree on a family code word. Use a secret phrase to confirm unusual urgent requests.
- Enable multi-factor authentication. Where possible, choose access keys or hardware security keys.
- Limit publishing personal records. Check the availability of videos, voice messages, and photos on social networks.
- Do not disclose one-time codes. A genuine bank employee should not ask for login codes during an external call.
- Verify requests for money. Do not trust only the voice or video image.
- Update software. Use up-to-date protection systems on your smartphone, computer, and browser.
These measures do not make deepfake creation impossible, but complicate its use for stealing money and account access.
A separate issue is data privacy when using AI. How local data processing works without mandatory cloud transfer can be read in the article “What is On-device AI and why is it becoming important”.
How can companies protect themselves from deepfake attacks on employees?
For businesses, the main risk is unauthorized transfers, leakage of commercial information, and substitution of management instructions.
In the NSA recommendations on combating deepfake, multimedia forensics expert Candice Rockell Gerstner emphasizes: “Organizations and their employees need to learn how to recognize deepfake methods and have a response plan to minimize the consequences of an attack” (translated from English).
What rules should be implemented for employees?
Companies should apply several independent levels of protection:
- confirmation of large payments by two authorized employees;
- verification of changes in bank details through an independent channel;
- prohibition of transmitting passwords and codes via messengers;
- regular training of staff on AI fraud;
- restrict access to financial and confidential information;
- preparation of an incident response plan.
Special attention should be given to accounting, finance department, management, and technical support staff.
When choosing corporate AI solutions, it is also necessary to consider access policies and data protection. These issues are discussed in the article “AI for business in 2026 – what is really worth comparing”.
Is it possible to detect deepfake with special programs?
AI detectors analyze images, audio signals, digital artifacts, and other file characteristics. However, results of such checks have limitations.
Programs may falsely classify real videos as fakes or fail to detect high-quality deepfakes. It is particularly challenging to analyze short, compressed, or repeatedly uploaded recordings.
A more reliable check combines media file analysis, source verification, confirmation of circumstances by independent parties, and content origin verification.
What to do if you become a deepfake attack victim?
The course of action depends on whether scammers managed to get money, data, or account access.
- Immediately contact your bank. Report the fraudulent payment and ask to check the possibility of stopping or reversing it.
- Change compromised passwords. End third-party sessions and check security settings.
- Preserve evidence. Record messages, phone numbers, page addresses, recordings, and payment documents.
- Report to the Ukrainian Cyber Police. Submit an electronic application via the official system ticket.cyberpolice.gov.ua or call the police at 102.
- Complain about the fake content. Use the complaint mechanism of the respective social network or platform.
- Warn acquaintances or colleagues. If scammers use your face or voice, inform people about possible substitution.
If scammers threaten to publish fake intimate videos, do not rush to pay. Payment does not guarantee removal of materials and may lead to new demands.
Frequently Asked Questions about deepfake attacks
Yes. Some AI systems can generate animated images from a single photo. However, the quality of the result depends on the model, the source material, and the task set.
Yes. Voice conversion systems can change speech in real time. Therefore, a familiar voice does not replace independent identity verification.
It helps prevent unauthorized login but does not directly protect against psychological deception. A scammer can persuade a person to manually provide a code or confirm an operation.
Not always. A platform can remove a specific publication, but copies sometimes remain on other resources. Therefore, it is important to quickly secure evidence and submit complaints.
On-device AI is artificial intelligence that performs part or all of the data processing directly on a smartphone, laptop, tablet, or other user device. The request does not necessarily need to ...