AI Cyber Security for Employees: Spotting Deepfake Voice, Video, and “Urgent CEO” Scams

It’s 4:47 PM on a Friday. You’re trying to close out the week when a voice message comes through on Teams.

It’s your CEO. The voice is familiar. The tone is urgent. “I need you to wire $48,000 to a new vendor account. I’m about to walk into a meeting. Don’t loop anyone else in yet. Just handle it.”

What do you do?

This is the new reality of AI cyber security for employees. Attackers don’t always need to break into systems when they can pressure people into bypassing processes. Deepfake voice and video make that pressure feel more convincing, especially in distributed teams where you can’t just pop your head into someone’s office to confirm.

This guide is awareness-first and practical. You don’t need to be technical to use it. You just need a repeatable habit: pause, verify out-of-band, and escalate when something doesn’t feel right.

What Deepfake Scams Look Like at Work 

A deepfake is synthetic media created with AI. In practice, employees run into two main types:

Deepfake voice: a realistic audio impersonation used in voicemails, live calls, or voice notes.

Deepfake video: a realistic video impersonation used in “quick calls,” recorded messages, or even real-time video.

Deepfakes usually don’t show up alone. They’re often paired with familiar business fraud patterns, like business email compromise, fake vendor invoices, payroll diversion, or credential theft. AI makes these scams more scalable and more believable, but the underlying playbook is still social engineering.

Most deepfake scams lean on three psychological levers:

Urgency: “Do it now or we lose the deal.”

Authority: “This is coming from the CEO, CFO, HR, or IT.”

Secrecy: “Don’t involve anyone else.”

When those three show up together, treat it like a flashing warning light. Your job isn’t to debate whether the media is real. Your job is to follow a verification process that makes “real vs fake” irrelevant.

Common “Urgent CEO” Scam Scenarios Employees Actually See

Deepfake-enabled fraud often targets the people who can move money, change accounts, or access sensitive data. Here are realistic patterns to watch for.

The urgent wire transfer: A voice note or call instructs finance, an executive assistant, or an operations lead to send money immediately. The message often includes a believable reason: a confidential acquisition, a legal settlement, a time-sensitive vendor payment.

Vendor banking change under pressure: An “AP thread” says the vendor updated bank details and needs the next payment routed to a new account. The scam escalates with urgency, and sometimes a “manager” voice note reinforces it.

Gift cards for “employee appreciation”: A request asks you to buy gift cards fast and send the codes. This is common because it’s hard to reverse and easy to launder.

A “quick video call” that turns into a sensitive request: You’re invited to a short call where a familiar face asks for payroll info, customer lists, or a one-time login code. The attacker uses the live setting to increase compliance.

MFA fatigue and credential prompts: You receive repeated MFA prompts or an IT-style message pushing you to “re-authenticate.” A deepfake call may accompany it: “Approve it now, we’re trying to fix your access.”

HR or recruiting impersonation: A convincing “HR” message asks for W-2s, benefits data, or personal information, framed as urgent compliance or end-of-year reporting.

The details change, but the objective stays the same: get you to bypass the normal policies and procedures.

Fast Red Flags: Voice, Video, and Message Clues

You don’t need to become a deepfake detective, but it helps to recognize patterns that commonly appear when attackers are improvising.

Voice red flags: Attackers may avoid open-ended conversation. They’ll push you toward a single action, quickly. You might notice unnatural pacing, odd emphasis, or a “too polished” cadence. A big one is resistance to a callback. If someone pressures you to stay in one channel, or says they “can’t talk long,” treat that as a reason to verify.

Video red flags: Deepfake video can look convincing at a glance, but it often breaks in motion. Watch for lip-sync that doesn’t match, unusual blinking, facial warping, or jitter around edges like hair and teeth. Also watch for a pattern of “camera problems” used to avoid live interaction. If the video keeps toggling off right as you ask verifying questions, slow down.

Message red flags (email, chat, text): Lookalike domains, strange sender addresses, unusual time zones, and minor naming mismatches are classic. Also pay attention to the person’s typical tone. If your CFO never uses exclamation points, and suddenly you get “NEED THIS ASAP!!!”, you should verify. The strongest red flag is a request that bypasses normal processes, especially for money movement, bank changes, credentials, or sensitive documents.

Red flags are useful, but they’re not the core defense. Verification is.

The Employee Verification Playbook 

If you take one thing from this post, take this: sensitive requests require verification even when they seem to come from someone you trust.

Step 1: Pause and label the request

Ask yourself what category this is:

• Money movement or payment approval
• Vendor banking change
• Payroll or employee data
• Login credentials or MFA codes
• Sensitive customer data or internal documents

If it’s in any of those categories, verification is mandatory. No exceptions for urgency.

Step 2: Verify out-of-band

“Out-of-band” means verifying through a different path than the one used to contact you.

Use a known-good number from your directory or an official contact record. Do not use the phone number provided in the message.

Use a second channel. If the request came via email, verify by calling. If it came via chat, verify by calling and replying in a separate, known thread. The point is to avoid staying inside the attacker’s controlled lane.

Ask one verification question that’s hard to bluff. Keep it simple and work-related. The goal is not to interrogate. The goal is to trigger a process the attacker can’t satisfy.

Step 3: Escalate quickly and safely

If verification fails, or if you can’t verify quickly, escalate. This should feel normal, not confrontational. Your company should prefer a slightly delayed request over a successful fraud.

If your organization has a security mailbox, “report phishing” button, or internal ticketing, use it. If not, escalate to your manager and the relevant owner (finance controller, HR lead, IT/security).

A useful personal rule is this: if it’s urgent and sensitive, it’s urgent to verify.

“Safe Words” and Verification Questions That Don’t Feel Awkward

A safe word is a pre-agreed phrase your team uses to confirm identity in high-risk situations. It’s not a “secret password” you share everywhere. It’s a simple check that forces a legitimate person to prove they’re not just a convincing voice note.

Safe words work best when:

• They’re department-specific (finance, HR, exec support)
• They’re short and easy to remember
• They rotate on a set cadence (for example, quarterly)
• They’re stored in a secure internal place, not a public shared doc

If safe words feel too formal for your culture, use verification questions instead. Good verification questions are not personal. They’re operational.

Examples:

• “Which vendor portal are we using for this payment?”
• “What’s the internal code name for this initiative?”
• “What did we decide about approvals at the last finance check-in?”
• “What’s the ticket number for the incident you’re referencing?”

If someone gets offended by a standard verification check, that’s a signal you should escalate. A healthy culture treats verification as professionalism, not distrust.

Payment Controls That Stop Losses Even When Someone Gets Tricked

Individual awareness matters, but process controls are what prevent single-point failure. Many deepfake scams succeed because one person feels pressured to be “helpful” and takes action alone.

If you’re involved in any payment or account-change workflow, push for guardrails like these:

Two-person approval for wires and large payments: No single person should be able to initiate and approve a transfer. Even a simple second approver breaks most attacker timelines.

Vendor bank change verification: Treat vendor bank changes as a separate, high-risk event. Verify the change by calling a known contact using a number from your vendor master record, not the invoice email.

Hold periods for new payees and new bank detail: A short waiting window can prevent same-day fraud. Attackers rely on urgency. A hold period forces daylight.

Limits and step-up approvals: First-time destinations, international transfers, or unusually timed requests should trigger extra verification.

Clear “no gift cards” policy: Gift card requests are so common because they’re hard to reverse. Make the policy simple: gift cards are never purchased in response to an urgent message.

If you’re not in finance, you still benefit from knowing these exist, because scammers often start with non-finance employees and work laterally until they reach someone who can move money.

Role-Based Guidance: What To Do If You’re in Finance, HR, or Exec Support

Finance and accounts payable: Assume attackers will target invoice routing and bank changes. Separate invoice approval from bank-detail changes so a single thread can’t drive both. If a leader pressures you to bypass checks, use a scripted response that references policy, not personal judgment.

HR and People Ops: Treat W-2 requests, payroll changes, benefits data, and personal identifiers as high-risk. Use secure portals and known processes. If someone asks for a spreadsheet of employee data “right now,” verify identity out-of-band and involve a second approver.

Executive assistants and admins: You are frequently targeted because you’re trusted and you move fast. Pre-agree with leadership on how you’ll handle urgent requests. A CEO who supports verification will say, “Thank you for checking,” not “Just do it.”

Everyone else: If you’re not sure what to do, report it. Reporting is not an admission of failure. It’s part of AI cyber security in practice. The faster you report, the faster your org can warn others.

What To Do the Moment You Suspect a Deepfake Scam

First, stop the action. Do not send the money, do not approve the request, and do not keep engaging in the same channel to “figure it out.”

Second, preserve evidence. Take a screenshot of the message. Note the time, the username, the email address, and any phone numbers involved. If there was a voice note, follow your organization’s guidance on how to retain it.

Third, report using the fastest route your company provides. If there’s a “report phishing” workflow, use it. If not, notify your manager and the relevant owner (finance lead, HR lead, IT/security).

If money has already moved, escalate immediately. Minutes matter more than embarrassment. Many organizations can still interrupt payment flows if they act quickly enough.

Phishing and Deepfake Simulations That Build Habits (Not “Gotchas”)

Training works best when it changes behavior under pressure. That means simulations should reinforce the same loop every time: pause, verify, report.

Simulation ideas that mirror real deepfake patterns:

• A “CEO” voice note asking for an urgent wire transfer, followed by a chat message pushing secrecy
• A vendor bank change request paired with a “manager” message urging you to hurry
• A short “video call invite” that tries to extract sensitive documents
• An MFA fatigue scenario paired with an “IT call” that pressures approval

What to measure:

• Reporting rate (how many people report suspicious messages)
• Time-to-report (how quickly reports come in)
• Reduction in process bypass attempts (especially for payments and data)
• Improvement by department risk profile (finance and HR should see the fastest gains)

If employees feel punished for failing a simulation, they’ll stop reporting. The best programs reward reporting and verification.

Quick Reference: Scripts Employees Can Copy-Paste

Use these scripts to remove awkwardness. You’re not accusing anyone. You’re following a standard.

For urgent payment requests: “I can’t process urgent payment requests without verifying by callback. I’m calling you now using the number in our directory.”

For vendor bank detail changes: “Before we change banking details, I’m required to confirm using a known vendor contact. I’ll call the vendor from our records and follow up.”

For sensitive document requests: “This request involves sensitive data, so I can only share it through our approved process. If you submit it through the standard request path, I can help right away.”

For login or MFA pressure: “I can’t approve logins or share codes over chat or voice. If this is urgent, we can escalate to IT/security now.”

For leadership who is truly in a hurry: “I can move quickly, but I need verification first. It will take two minutes and protects both of us.”

Wrap-Up: Make Verification the Culture

Deepfake scams win when people feel isolated and rushed. Strong AI cyber security for employees is the opposite: slow the moment down, verify through a trusted path, and escalate without fear.

Leaders can make this dramatically easier by modeling the behavior. When someone verifies, the right response is, “Thanks for checking.” Every time leadership reinforces that, the culture becomes harder to manipulate.

If you want employees to do the right thing under pressure, they need more than a one-time video. They need practice, reinforcement, and clear reporting paths.

Cybrary can help you build a practical AI cyber security training program that trains the behaviors that stop deepfake and “urgent CEO” scams: verification habits, out-of-band checks, escalation workflows, and realistic simulations that make good judgment automatic. Request a demo, today.