With a few seconds of someone's voice from a voicemail, a webinar, or a social media clip, software can produce speech that sounds like them saying anything. Video can be faked the same way, including on a live call. Criminals use this to impersonate an owner, a finance lead, a supplier, or a customer, and to create urgency: pay this invoice now, change these bank details, buy these gift cards, keep this confidential.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded tens of thousands of complaints referencing AI in 2025, with losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Small companies are targeted because they have money, fewer controls, and people who want to be helpful.

The lesson is not to distrust every call. It is that a voice, a face, an email address, or a letterhead is no longer proof of identity. Only a procedure is.

• A voice or face on a call is not proof of who is calling.
• Urgency and secrecy are the signature of the scam.
• Procedure, not instinct, is the defence.