AI scams targeting businesses: are you prepared?

Imagine this: you own a business. You call into your office and ask that your accounting department make a payment to a new vendor today. Your accountant sends the money, only to discover that the call wasn’t actually from you. It sounded like your voice and spoke in the same way, but you were at the gym at the time of the call and didn’t know this new vendor. It doesn’t add up.

This is an AI scam. Similar scams led to the FBI receiving 22,364 AI-related complaints in 2025 and more than $893 million in reported losses. AI tools are widely available, making AI fraud relatively easy. The first step in protecting your business from artificial intelligence scams is knowing what to look for.

Why AI is hard to spot

It used to be easy to spot a scam. Emails and text messages used to be full of misspellings and bad grammar, while calls and voicemails sounded robotic. But now, AI has made scams sound much more believable and personal. It can pull your information from places like your social media or your company website. Messages now sound like someone you know, and it can be hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. The FBI warns that AI powered fraud is increasingly difficult to detect and easier to make.

6 AI scams to watch for

The best thing you can do to protect your business against AI scams is know what to look for and have a process to verify it. The following are common scams to watch for.

1. AI-generated phishing

Phishing is when scammers impersonate someone or an organization that you trust in order to steal your confidential information, such as passwords, or to even convince you to send money. In the business world, a common form is called business email compromise (BEC), which is a social engineering scam where phishers impersonate trusted leaders, colleagues, clients, vendors, consultants or more via email. According to the FBI businesses reported more than $30 million in losses from AI-enabled BEC scams in 2025.

2. Voice-cloning phone calls

Voice cloning is when AI is used to copy a person’s voice from voicemail greetings or recordings. The AI scammer then calls and poses as an employee or boss and requests money or confidential information like passwords or files. This is like the example above where the scammer sounded just like the boss and requested urgent payment to a new vendor.

3. Deepfake video meetings

It used to be that seeing someone on your screen confirmed it was really them. Enter deepfake AI. Scammers can now use AI to create a realistic video of a real person, like a CEO or business partner, and use it live during a video call. This works like a mask. A real person on the other end talks and reacts while AI changes their face to look like someone else. In one case, an employee at engineering firm Arup sent $25 million after a video call with what looked like senior managers, but they were all deepfake videos. Deepfake AI can also be used to make photos and images.

4. Synthetic identities

A synthetic identity combines real stolen information with made-up details to create a person who doesn’t actually exist. AI images and AI photos make these fake identities look real, from a social media profile picture to a driver’s license. These are then used to open accounts and get around identity verification. Between 2023 and 2024, FinCEN, the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit, observed an increase in bank reports involving deepfake media, including AI photos on driver’s licenses and passports. Some scammers paired those photos with stolen or fake personal information to create synthetic identities.

5. Fake job applicants and remote workers

With the rise of remote work comes fake employees. A fake job applicant might use a synthetic identity and deepfake AI images to apply for a remote job, then employ AI video faceswap for an interview. In 2025, the FBI reported that North Korean IT workers were using AI and face-swapping technology during video job interviews, stealing company code and holding it for ransom.

6. AI-powered investment, customer-support and impersonation scams

AI can also be used to impersonate someone you trust. Maybe a well-known CEO of a company in your niche or a celebrity promoting investment opportunities. Chainalysis found that crypto scams linked to AI tools made about 4.5 times more money than scams without them. AI can also be used to build fake websites and chatbots acting as customer support that then steal your information.

How to protect your business from AI fraud

When it comes to how to avoid scams, the best defense is to slow down and verify everything. Implement these simple steps and train your team so everyone is taking the same precautions.

• Verify a second way. That can be as simple as you calling the person back. Either look up their number if you don’t have it or call them back on a number you already have for them before you hand over passwords, money or data.
• Require approval. Before anyone on your team can make a payment, add or change vendor details, another person must approve it. That way, a single employee can’t move money alone.
• Designate a code word. This is used when an urgent request comes in from leadership or management, especially if the request isn’t made in person.
• Use multi-factor authentication. Turn it on for email and important accounts, like financial accounts.
• Protect your business from cyber threats. Update your software and devices regularly, use strong passwords and back up important files. Fewer weak spots leave less room for AI scammers to get through.

Since many scams happen over the phone, you can also use your phone system to protect your business. Call blocking can screen incoming calls for robocalls and send calls with hidden numbers straight to voicemail, while call screening can ask unknown callers to record their name before being passed through. You can also use phone technology to pull background details on callers and to record conversations if something seems off. For meetings, you can require a password to join. While there’s no single tool to protect your business against AI scams, staying informed and using simple protection rules and technology can go a long way in preventing your business from falling victim to AI fraud.