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Synthetic voice attacks targeting retail, insurance, and banking sectors skyrocketed to record highs last year.
Deepfake-powered fraud rose alarmingly in 2024, rising from an average rate of one per month to seven per day in the United States.
The worrying upward trend was revealed in voice authentication firm Pindrop’s 2025 Voice Intelligence & Security Report, released on 12 June.
“Voice fraud is no longer a future threat – it’s here, and it’s scaling at a rate that no one could have predicted,” Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO and co-founder of Pindrop, said in a statement.
“Deepfakes, synthetic voice tech, and AI-driven scams are reshaping the fraud landscape. The numbers are staggering, and the tactics are growing more sophisticated by the day.”
Overall, the rate of deepfake fraud rose by 1,300 per cent last year, according to Pindrop’s analysis of more than 1.2 billion customer calls. Synthetic voice attacks targeting the insurance industry rose by 475 per cent, banking by 149 per cent, and the retail sector by 107 per cent.
And it’s not just all about faking voices. Face swap attacks rose by 704 per cent, while AI now powers 42.5 per cent of all fraud attempts.
Looking ahead, Pindrop is expecting deepfake calls to rise by 155 per cent in 2025, though the company did admit its 2024 forecast was far too low compared to the actual figures. The rate of retail fraud is expected to double in the year ahead, while deepfake-related fraud of all types may grow by 162 per cent.
“Fraudsters are evolving at warp speed – so our solutions must evolve even faster,” Rahul Sood, chief product officer at Pindrop, said.
“The team at Pindrop is relentlessly innovating to help enterprises verify the right human and build trust in today’s AI era. Whether it’s the contact centre or across various real-time communication channels, we’re making security smarter, faster, and frictionless.”
You can read the full report here.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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