DeepfakeMedium
Scammers Reportedly Used AI Voice Clone and YouTube Footage to Impersonate WPP CEO in Unsuccessful Scam Attempt
- Occurred
- May 10, 2024
- Published
- Jul 7, 2025
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
Scammers reportedly attempted to impersonate WPP CEO Mark Read using AI-generated voice cloning and YouTube footage in a Microsoft Teams scam. They allegedly created a fake WhatsApp account with Read’s image and used deepfake audio to deceive an agency leader into setting up a new business. The scheme, which was unsuccessful, aimed to solicit money and personal data.
Developers
- Deepfake technology developers
- Synthetic audio generation technology
Deployers
- Scammers impersonating Mark Read
- Scammers
Harmed parties
- Mark Read
- WPP
- WPP employees
- General public
Tags
- Financial scam
- Impersonation
- Corporate fraud attempt
- Deepfake scam
- Voice cloning scam
- Foiled deepfake scam
Classification
Category confidence: 95%
Severity confidence: 90%
Rationale: Incident involves AI voice cloning and deepfake audio used for impersonation scam, fitting deepfake category; unsuccessful attempt limits severity to medium.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8