From phishing to deepfakes: The evolving world of digital impersonation

The digital world has brought us incredible convenience, from connecting with loved ones across the globe to managing our finances with a few taps on a smartphone. But with this convenience comes an increasing number of sophisticated risks. For years, we’ve all been taught to spot a phishing email—the poorly worded request from a “long-lost relative” or the urgent alert from a bank you don’t use. But as we’ve gotten better at spotting those classic scams, the people behind them have gotten smarter, using powerful new tools to create more realistic and emotionally charged threats.

Today, the world of digital impersonation has evolved far beyond simple emails. It has entered a new and unnerving phase powered by artificial intelligence (AI). This new era introduces deepfakes, which are synthetic media where a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else’s likeness. These deepfakes can impersonate voices, faces, and mannerisms with stunning accuracy, blurring the lines between what is real and what is not. In this blog post, we’ll explore the evolution of digital impersonation, from the simple scams of the past to the complex AI-powered threats of today and provide a guide to helping you and your family stay safe in this brave new digital landscape.

The foundation of digital impersonation: The rise of social engineering and phishing

Before we can understand the threat of deepfakes, we have to look at their ancestors: phishing and other forms of social engineering. In essence, these are the original digital impersonation scams, and they have been a problem for decades. Phishing is a type of fraud where an attacker sends a message, often an email, designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information or installing malicious software. The most well-known phishing scams often contained glaring errors, such as misspellings, poor grammar, or strange requests that made them easy to spot. They were a simple numbers game: cast a wide net and hope someone takes the bait.

According to a 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, the human element is involved in a majority of data breaches. This highlights a key truth about cybersecurity: technology can only do so much. A good social engineer knows that the weakest link in any security chain is often the person behind the screen. As we’ve become more aware of the classic red flags, scammers have adapted. They now use more personalized and sophisticated methods.

For example, spear phishing is a targeted attack that uses information about a specific person to make the scam more believable. Instead of a generic email, it might reference a recent purchase you made, a colleague, or a project you’re working on. This approach makes the scam feel urgent and legitimate. Another method, whaling, is an attack aimed at high-profile individuals, such as CEOs or senior executives, often impersonating a trusted business partner or even a subordinate to convince them to take action that could result in significant financial loss for the company. These tactics are effective because they leverage our natural tendencies to trust and respond to authority or urgent requests. They bypass traditional security by exploiting human psychology, turning people into unwitting accomplices in their own digital compromise.

The next level of deception: AI and deepfake scams

The evolution of digital impersonation has taken a major leap with the advent of generative AI. While old-school phishing relied on text and static images, AI can now produce highly realistic, dynamic content that makes it much harder to discern reality from a lie.

Voice cloning and audio deepfakes

One of the most concerning developments is the use of AI for voice cloning. Scammers can now use just a few seconds of a person’s voice, easily scraped from social media videos, podcasts, or voicemails, to create an eerily accurate voice clone. They then use this cloned voice to call or send a voice message to a loved one, creating an emotional and urgent scenario. Imagine getting a call from what sounds exactly like your child, tearfully claiming they are in trouble and need money sent immediately. In these high-stress moments, people’s natural instincts to help can override their caution, leading to significant financial losses.

A 2024 study found that a small voice sample is sometimes all that’s needed to produce a close voice match from the original. These voice deepfakes are increasingly being used in fraud attempts, particularly against family members and in business email compromise (BEC) attacks, where a scammer impersonates a senior executive to authorize a fraudulent wire transfer.

Deepfake videos and visual impersonation

While voice cloning is a serious threat, deepfake videos elevate digital impersonation to a new level. These videos use AI to convincingly superimpose a person’s face onto another’s body, creating a fake video that can be nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. They can be used to create fake celebrity endorsements for fraudulent products, spread misinformation, or, in more personal attacks, impersonate a family member or friend on a video call.

For instance, a scammer might impersonate a company’s chief financial officer (CFO) in a video conference with an employee, using a deepfake to ask for an urgent and large-sum wire transfer to a fake account. Because the victim sees and hears their “CFO” on the video call, they are far more likely to comply without questioning the request. One such incident in Hong Kong resulted in a finance firm losing a reported $25 million after an AI deepfake was used to impersonate their CFO during a video call. This shows the incredible effectiveness and high stakes of these new scams.

The psychology of modern cyberthreats

The power of these new AI-driven cyberthreats is in their ability to exploit trust and emotional response. While a traditional phishing email might activate our skepticism, a deepfake voice of a loved one or a realistic video of a trusted colleague appeals directly to our emotions and our sense of duty. This makes us bypass the logical, analytical part of our brain, and it is what makes these new scams so dangerous. They take the social engineering that has always been at the heart of scams and supercharge it with technology, creating a much more difficult threat to detect.

How to identify modern digital threats

Navigating this new threat landscape requires a combination of technical awareness and personal vigilance. While deepfakes can be incredibly convincing, they often still have subtle flaws that are not obvious to the human eye.

Signs of a deepfake video or audio:

• Inconsistent or unnatural eye movements: Does the person in the video blink too much or too little? Are their eyes darting around unnaturally?
• Unnatural lighting or shadows: AI-generated images sometimes struggle to get the lighting and shadows right. Look for odd glares or shadows that don’t match the environment.
• Facial distortions: Watch for blurry or warped facial features, especially around the mouth and ears.
• Audio-video mismatch: Is the person’s mouth movement out of sync with their voice? Does the voice tone sound flat or unnatural?
• Lack of emotion: Deepfake technology can replicate words, but it often struggles to convey subtle human emotion, leading to a monotone delivery.

How to spot AI-enhanced phishing emails and texts:

• “Too-perfect” language: While traditional phishing emails were full of errors, AI-generated scams can be grammatically flawless. Be suspicious of overly formal or polished language that feels off for the sender.
• Urgency and pressure: Scammers use emotional triggers to get you to act without thinking. Be wary of any message that demands immediate action or threatens consequences if you don’t respond right away.
• Unexpected requests: If a colleague or family member asks you to do something that seems out of character, or if a company you do business with makes a strange request, it is a big red flag.

A simple strategy: Pause and verify

The single most powerful defense against almost all of these scams is to pause and verify. If you receive an urgent request from a loved one on a strange number, hang up and call them back on a known, trusted number. If a colleague sends a strange email, don’t reply to it directly. Instead, start a new email to their verified address or call them on the phone. This simple act of verification helps minimize the risk of being a victim.

Building a personal cybersecurity fortress

While knowing how to spot threats is important, a proactive defense strategy is the best way to help protect yourself and your family. This involves both good personal habits and using the right tools to secure your digital life.

The human element of a defense strategy

• Practice good password hygiene: Use long, unique passwords for every single online account. Use a password manager to help keep track of them.
• Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA): This adds an extra layer of security that helps prevent unauthorized access to your accounts. Even if a scammer steals your password, they can’t get in without the second factor, like a code sent to your phone.
• Be careful what you share: Be mindful of the high-quality photos and videos you share on social media, as they can be used as source material for deepfakes. Review your privacy settings to ensure only trusted people can see what you post.

Educate your family: Talk openly about these new threats with your family members, especially children and seniors. Helping them understand how these scams work and the importance of verification can help protect everyone.

The role of a reliable connection in your digital defense

While a strong defense starts with you, it also requires a reliable and stable foundation. Your internet connection is the gateway to your digital world, and its quality can play a role in your overall cybersecurity strategy. CenturyLink Internet provides an excellent internet connection for modern life, and a number of its features help bolster your defenses against cyberthreats.

A consistent connection helps ensure that security updates for your devices and software are downloaded and installed on time. These updates often contain critical patches that help protect against the latest cyberthreats. With 99.9% reliability, based on network uptime or availability, CenturyLink internet helps ensure your devices are consistently connected and able to receive these important updates.

CenturyLink internet also helps provide fast speeds. This matters for your digital defense because it allows you to quickly and smoothly access trusted sources to verify information. If you receive a suspicious video, you can load the official company website or a news outlet to confirm its legitimacy. This helps minimize excessive buffering and delays that could prevent you from acting swiftly.

Furthermore, CenturyLink offers a reliable WiFi experience that helps provide enhanced coverage throughout your home. This can help minimize dead zones and inconsistent coverage that could leave some of your smart devices or a security camera disconnected and vulnerable.

The future of your security is in your hands

The world of digital impersonation is continuously changing, moving from the simple text-based phishing scams of the past to the sophisticated and emotionally compelling deepfakes of today. As AI tools become more accessible, the need for personal vigilance and a robust cybersecurity strategy has never been more important. By understanding the tactics of modern scammers, learning how to spot the signs of fake content, and implementing strong personal habits like using MFA and unique passwords, you can help build a strong defense for your digital life.

A strong defense requires a reliable foundation. CenturyLink Internet provides the high speeds and dependable service that help you stay connected, secure, and one step ahead of a constantly evolving threat landscape. The right connection helps you take control of your digital security.

Ready to see how CenturyLink can help provide the solid, secure connection you need? Check your address for service availability today!

 

How have you adapted your personal habits to help protect yourself and your family from the new wave of digital threats?