In a striking incident earlier this month, an executive at Ferrari NV RACE found himself receiving unusual messages that appeared to be from the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna.

The messages, arriving through WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta Inc. META, suggested a major acquisition was in the works and required the executive’s assistance.

The messages purportedly from Vigna had a different phone number and profile picture than usual. Despite the convincing image of the bespectacled CEO in front of Ferrari’s prancing-horse logo, the executive grew suspicious.

One message urged, “Be ready to sign the Non-Disclosure Agreement our lawyer is set to send you asap,” and mentioned that “Italy’s market regulator and Milan stock-exchange have been already informed. Stay ready and please utmost discretion,” reported Bloomberg.

This was a sophisticated attempt to use deepfake technology to infiltrate Ferrari.

The executive realized something was amiss when he noticed subtle mechanical intonations in the voice and a different phone number.

Suspicions were confirmed when the imposter could not answer a verification question about a book recently recommended by Vigna, leading to the abrupt end of the call.

Also Read: Ferrari’s First Electric Car To Cost Over $500,000, Higher Than Tesla Roadster, Porsche Taycan: Report

This incident is part of a growing trend where deepfake scams target high-profile executives. Similar tactics were used against WPP PLC WPP CEO Mark Read in May, though that attempt also failed, according to Bloomberg.

“This year we’re seeing an increase in criminals attempting to voice clone using AI,” said Rachel Tobac, CEO of cybersecurity training company SocialProof Security.

While deepfake technology has not yet caused widespread deception, significant losses have occurred. A multinational company in Hong Kong was scammed out of HK$200 million ($26 million) earlier this year through deepfake technology.

CyberArk Software CYBR, an information security company, is already training its executives to identify such scams.

“It’s just a matter of time before these AI-based deepfake tools become incredibly accurate,” warned Stefano Zanero, a cybersecurity professor at Italy’s Politecnico di Milano.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Photo: B_A from Pixabay