Ghanaian companies risk becoming the next victims of sophisticated artificial intelligence-driven fraud unless they urgently overhaul their payment verification processes, a global fraud expert has warned.
ACCRA – Cyber criminals are deploying generative AI to execute increasingly convincing scams, with 79 per cent of organisations worldwide reporting attempted or actual payments fraud in 2024 – a sharp rise from 65 per cent just two years earlier, according to a new advisory from Wells Fargo’s Fraud Education and Awareness Programme.
The warning comes as Ghana’s digital payments landscape expands rapidly, with mobile money transactions and online banking becoming the norm for businesses and individuals alike. The same technologies that make transactions convenient, experts say, are creating vulnerabilities that fraudsters are exploiting with alarming sophistication.
The $25 Million Wake-Up Call
One recent scam made international headlines when fraudsters netted more than $25 million from a company in Hong Kong. A finance employee authorised a series of payments after believing that attendees on a corporate video call were actual co-workers – including the company’s chief financial officer. The “participants” turned out to be high-tech video deepfakes so realistic that the employee could not detect the fraud.
“Gen AI capabilities make it faster and easier for bad actors to churn out phishing emails, deceptive text messages, calls, and videos – all with much higher quality than in the past,” said Anil G. Khilnani, who issued the advisory. “The technology also enables scammers to automate and scale up their attempts so they can target more companies, more often.”
How Fraudsters Are Striking
The advisory identified three primary ways criminals are deploying generative AI:
· Realistic phishing emails and fake websites – The days of checking for bad spelling, poor grammar, and sloppy logos are over. Today’s Gen AI versions are highly sophisticated and difficult to distinguish from legitimate communications.
· Deepfake calls, images, and videos – Fraudsters impersonate trusted sources, using just a few video clips or digital soundbites to spoof an actual person. Employees are more likely to process a fraudulent payment if they think the voice on the other end is their boss or the CFO.
· Complex storytelling through automated chatbots – Gen AI tools help fraudsters build trust with targets, quickly gathering information from social media and conducting detailed conversations across multiple channels.
Why Banks Cannot Always Intervene
The advisory noted that schemes like phishing and business email compromise can make it nearly impossible for banks or payment providers to detect unauthorised payments. When an employee authorises a payment or unintentionally shares sensitive data with scammers, the resulting transactions can look just like regular payments.
This makes ongoing employee training a critical element of any company’s fraud prevention strategy.
Protecting Your Organisation
The advisory outlined several best practices for businesses:
Strengthen email filtering – Implement an AI-based secure email gateway that uses behavioural analysis to filter out imposter domains and business email compromise attempts.
Implement robust payment verification – If a vendor emails requesting a payment instruction change, do not hit “reply”. Instead, call the known contact using the phone number already in the system. Any request to keep a payment secret, send it to a new country, or process it with extreme urgency should be treated as a red flag.
Use dual custody for payments – Have two employees involved: one to initiate a payment or change, and a separate employee using a different computer to approve the transaction.
Provide ongoing fraud prevention training – Create a culture of awareness and cybersecurity, giving extra attention to anyone involved in money movement and vendor management.
The Bottom Line
As AI continues to disrupt how people live and work, businesses that stay current with the technology’s capabilities will have the best chance of protecting themselves. For Ghanaian companies, where digital payments are increasingly central to commerce, the message is clear: verify everything, trust nothing, and train everyone. – Graphic Online
