Unnamed British energy firm voice deepfake — Oct 2026

A British energy firm was defrauded of nearly £200,000 after cyber criminals utilized artificial intelligence to impersonate a senior executive. The manager of the unnamed company was instructed to transfer €220,000 to a Hungarian bank account under the guise of an urgent payment to a supplier.

What happened

The attack involved a series of phone calls where the fraudsters used AI-powered voice cloning software to mimic the voice, accent, and speaking style of the manager's boss, who was based at the company's German parent firm. The manager initially complied with the request, believing the instructions were legitimate. Suspicion arose when the promised repayment failed to materialize and a subsequent call originated from an Austrian phone number rather than a German one. The deception was further confirmed when the manager received a third fake call while simultaneously speaking to the real executive on another line. When the manager challenged the caller, the line immediately went dead. According to the insurance firm Euler Hermes, which disclosed the incident, this represented one of the first known instances of voice-cloning fraud. While the insurance policy covered the loss, the perpetrators behind the scheme remain unidentified.