Since 2020 the amount of CEO fraud cases have fallen but the value of fraud has almost tripled to £11.8m in 2024, while the amount recovered continues to fall, revealed latest UKFinance figures.

In 2024 there were 270 CEO frauds committed, with the majority of them affecting the CEO’s company, with just 29 targeting the CEO personally.

Just this year the boss of an executive at a UK energy firm was scammed into transferring £200,000 by scammers using artificial intelligence (AI) to impersonate their boss’s voice. The scam used deepfake technology which is widely available for a relatively small fee.

CEO fraud is where scammers impersonate the CEO, or other senior staff to convince employees to release money urgently, most of the time straight to the fraudster’s bank account.