An employee receives a call that appears to be from their boss or the bank, requesting an urgent transfer. Using artificial intelligence, the voice can be cloned from just a few seconds of publicly available audio, making the call sound authentic.
According to the National Cyber Security Directorate (DNSC), 42% of the fraud incidents reported in Romania in the first half of 2026 were "vishing" incidents — telephone scams in which the attacker masks the displayed number and impersonates a bank, an institution, or a known individual. Traditional email phishing accounted for 14% of incidents, and SMS fraud (smishing) for 13%.
What’s new isn’t the scam itself, but the tool. A trustworthy voice can be replicated in a matter of seconds using publicly available audio clips—a social media post, an interview, or a voicemail. The cloned voice is then used under the pretext of an emergency to request an immediate money transfer or access credentials. The pressure to act immediately is the common red flag in all these scams.
For a small business, the specific risk is “CEO-style” fraud: an accounting employee receives a call at the end of the workday from someone who sounds exactly like the CEO, with a plausible and urgent request regarding a new supplier. Without a clear procedure in place, the pressure of the moment takes its toll.
This defense isn’t a technical one, but a simple rule that everyone follows: any request for money or information that comes “urgently” over the phone should be verified through a second, trusted channel. In practice:
- Hang up and call back a number you already know, not the one displayed by the caller.
- Establish a “security word” within your company for payment requests made over the phone; without it, the request is put on hold.
- Do not install apps or share login credentials even if a caller insists.
- Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on your important accounts.
A 30-second rule can prevent fraud amounting to tens of thousands of lei. If you’d like us to implement such a procedure in your company and train your team to recognize these calls, the XDN team can help you.
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This article was generated with AI assistance.