The Deepfake AI Meeting That Stole $25 Million

In January 2024, a finance employee at global engineering and design firm the Arup Group received a suspicious email from the company's CFO, asking her to carry out a series of external transactions. Suspicious, she ignored the email. But when she received a video meeting invitation to clarify the situation, her suspicions went away. After all - everyone looked and sounded completely normal. Except... Note: The video calls presented in this video are a reconstruction - and is not meant to be an accurate representation of real Arup employees. Research Links: • CFO Dive – Scammers siphon £25m from Arup using AI deepfake CFO: https://www.cfodive.com/news/scammers... • The Guardian – UK engineering firm Arup hit by Hong Kong deepfake scam: https://www.theguardian.com/technolog... • The Guardian – Hong Kong company duped by deepfake video call: https://www.theguardian.com/world/202... • AccountingWeb – Deepfake CFO dupes business into £20m payment: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/... • The Star – Hong Kong firm scammed after video call with fake CFO: https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/... • Stewarts Law – Deepfake fraud reveals AI’s danger to business: https://www.stewartslaw.com/news/mult... • SC World – Deepfake video conference convinces employee to send $25m: https://www.scworld.com/news/deepfake... • Help Net Security – Deepfake video call scams: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2024/... • Coverlink – Case study: £25m deepfake scam: https://coverlink.com/case-study/case... • Wells Insurance – Corporate case study on Arup scam: https://blog.wellsins.com/corporate-c... • OryxAlign – Arup deepfake vishing scam explained: https://www.oryxalign.com/blog/arup-d... • Trustpair – The ultimate £25m deepfake con: https://trustpair.com/blog/25-million... • Trustpair – Deepfake scam trends: https://trustpair.com/blog/deepfake-s... • Fortune – Ferrari CEO targeted by deepfake scam attempt: https://fortune.com/2024/07/27/ferrar... • The China Daily – Deep Sham: https://www.chinadailyhk.com/hk/artic... • WEF – Arup deepfake fraud insights: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/... • TechTarget – Out-of-band authentication explained: https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecu... • TrueLayer – What is PSD2 and its role in compliance: https://truelayer.com/blog/compliance... • Starling Bank – Family ‘safe word’ to prevent WhatsApp scams: https://www.starlingbank.com/blog/fam... • TechUK – Trust in video meetings in the age of deepfakes: https://www.techuk.org/resource/how-c... • WhatIsMyIPAddress – How two cameras can fake video calls: https://whatismyipaddress.com/how-two... Image & Video Credits: • Video Credit – Celebrating 75 Years of Arup:    • Celebrating 75 Years of Arup   • Video Credit – Arup Social Media:    • Arup - Be part of a creative force   • Video Credit – Arup Social Media:    • Gradcracker & Arup Webinar   • Video Credit – Arup Webinar:    • Race to Zero: Towards clean energy (Hong K...   • Video Credit – Arup Lecture:    • Arup Lecture: Shaping a better world   • Video Credit – Rob Greig on Arup Deepfake Learnings: https://www.weforum.org/videos/arup-d... • Image Credits – Arup Social Media Screenshots:   / posts   • Image Credit – Andy Lee, Arup:   / andy-lee-7824861a7   • Image Credit – Robert Boardman, Arup CFO: https://www.arup.com/contact-us/rob-b... • Image Credit – Benedetto Vigna, Ferrari CEO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benedetto... • Deepfake AI Masking & Replacement Example: https://x.com/angrytomtweets/status/1... • Deepfake AI Masking & Replacement Example: https://x.com/angrytomtweets/status/1... • Deepfake AI Masking & Replacement Example: https://x.com/angrytomtweets/status/1... • Deepfake AI Masking & Replacement Example: https://x.com/8bit_e/status/197684636... Music by Epidemic Sound.