---
title: "An artificial-intelligence first: Voice-mimicking software reportedly used in a major theft"
metaTitle: "AI Voice Mimicking Theft"
slug: ai-voice-mimicking-theft
date: "2019-09-04T09:37:07-05:00"
image:
  src: "https://cdn.securelogix.dev/slx/images/undefined.webp"
sourcePublisher:
  name: Washington Post
  url: bit.ly
sourceArticle:
  url: "http://bit.ly/2mnrkNE"
legacySlug: an-artificial-intelligence-first-voice-mimicking-software-reportedly-used-in-a-major-theft
tags: [AI, Financial Fraud, Phone Scam]
status: published
---

September 4, 2019

Thieves used voice-mimicking software to imitate a company executive’s speech and dupe his subordinate into sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to a secret account, the company’s insurer said, in a remarkable case that some researchers are calling one of the world’s first publicly reported artificial-intelligence heists.

The managing director of a British energy company, believing his boss was on the phone, followed orders one Friday afternoon in March to wire more than $240,000 to an account in Hungary, said representatives from the French insurance giant Euler Hermes, which declined to name the company...