More than a quarter of firms not taking protections despite rising threat of deepfakes
Nearly half of New Zealand organisations targeted by deepfake scams have fallen for them, according to a new survey, which highlighted the need for stronger protections against cyberthreats.
Mastercard polled 209 business decision-makers in New Zealand to find that at least 18% have been targeted by deepfake scams in the last 12 months.
Among them, 47% have fallen for the manipulated content.
Deepfake scams utilise deepfake technology to manipulate images, video, and audio to defame individuals or trick them into losing money and disclosing personal information.
In the case of New Zealand businesses, deepfake scams commonly impersonated individuals, including customer service (38%), clients (29%), and suppliers and vendors (26%).
Employees, CEOs, board members, as well as law enforcement were also impersonated in these scams, according to the Mastercard report.
The findings reflect the emerging threat of deepfake scams that have also been happening overseas. A recent poll from Regula in five other countries revealed that incidents of audio and video deepfakes jumped to 49% in 2024.
Mallika Sathi, Vice President, Security Solutions, Australasia, Mastercard, said the findings show that generative AI technology can also be harnessed in "concerning ways."
"Increasingly, we see it is being used to manipulate consumers and businesses out of money in the form of scams involving deepfakes," Sathi said in a statement.
Measures against deepfake scams
The rising threat of deepfakes comes as 22% of business decision makers lack confidence that their employees can detect deepfake scams.
To avoid getting victimised by deepfake scams, the respondents said they have been taking the following measures:
- Implementing identity verification to access sensitive information (43%)
- Providing their team with cybersecurity training (39%)
- Conducting financial transaction training (29%)
- Implementing authentication protocols for payment requests (26%)
On the other hand, 26% of business decision makers admit that their organisation has not taken any measures to protect themselves from deepfake scams.
"As deepfakes can be utilised in many different types of scams, including video, images and audio, we encourage Kiwis to remain informed, vigilant and educated as the threat increases with the development of AI technology," Sathi said.
