Virtual meetings, AI and deepfake: WPP CEO targetted by scammers

Mark Read, the CEO of WPP, has been targetted by online scammers, according to news reports. 

According to news reports, the scammers utilised Mark Read's voice clone and public YouTube footage to arrange a Microsoft Teams call with senior executives.

Citing an email sent by the WPP chief to colleagues, a Guardian report stated that the fraudsters created a WhatsApp account using a publicly available image of Mark Read and used it to organise a Microsoft Teams meeting that seemed to involve him and another senior WPP executive.

In the meeting, the impostors employed a voice clone of the executive and played YouTube footage of them. The scammers impersonated Read through the meeting's chat window. The unsuccessful scam targeted an "agency leader," urging them to establish a new business to solicit money and personal details.

“Fortunately the attackers were not successful. We all need to be vigilant to the techniques that go beyond emails to take advantage of virtual meetings, AI and deepfakes. Just because the account has my photo doesn’t mean it’s me,” Read said in the email,” Read wrote in the email.