Top tips to avoid executive impersonation scams

Visa is spotlighting the dangers of social engineering and executive impersonation scams, which resulted in $1.1 billion in fraud losses in the last year.¹ Fraudsters are using artificial intelligence (AI) to create sophisticated deepfakes impersonating business leaders to prey on employees' natural desire to be helpful and exploit trusted relationships - whether it's convincing an employee to purchase hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars' worth of gift cards via phone messages, or hosting a video call using a deepfake of an executive.

Here are Visa's top tips to help employees and consumers spot potential impersonation scams - not just during Cybersecurity Awareness Month, but year-round:

• Be skeptical: Question unusual communications. Check if the medium and tone match the executive's usual behavior, and be aware of deepfake impersonation attempts, particularly involving company executives.
• Slow down and verify: Do not rush to act on unexpected requests. If you receive a message on a third-party platform, move the conversation to a company-supported channel to verify that the person is who they say they are.
• Think before you click: Avoid clicking on links or opening attachments from unknown senders.
• Be proactive: Secure sensitive data. Use strong, unique passwords for different sites, combining words, numbers, and symbols. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for an additional layer of security.
• Report suspicious activity: Promptly report suspicious emails to your company's security team so they can track and mitigate potential threats.
• Stay informed: Criminals are becoming more sophisticated. Stay up to date on the latest scams by attending cybersecurity awareness trainings. Subscribe to trusted cybersecurity newsletters and alerts to keep abreast of emerging threats and security best practices.

At Visa, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a time to educate and empower not only our employees, but our clients, partners and consumers around the world with the knowledge and tools to stay safe online. Companies around the world are dealing with cybersecurity-related issues, with the global cost of cybercrime expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025.² Visa is making significant investments in cybersecurity that will benefit our clients, with solutions that identify and mitigate cyber threats. By offering holistic risk solutions, we ensure a strong security posture for our clients, and a more secure payments ecosystem. Visa is committed to securing global money movement 24x7x365.