Bulgarian National Bank warns of AI-driven deepfake financial scams

The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) has issued a high-level warning regarding a sophisticated wave of financial fraud utilizing artificial intelligence. Criminals are employing deepfake technology to clone the voices and video images of relatives, friends, or colleagues to solicit urgent financial assistance through deceptive calls and social media messages.

Cybersecurity experts report that these scams are becoming increasingly difficult to detect. In Europe, the scale of such cybercrimes is significant, with estimates suggesting losses of approximately 8,000 euros per minute, totaling roughly 12 million euros daily. Beyond initial theft, a secondary scam known as a ‘recovery room’ scheme has emerged, where fraudsters contact previous victims promising to recover lost funds in exchange for a fee.

To mitigate these risks, authorities recommend establishing secret family passwords to verify identities during suspicious calls and manually redialing known contacts to confirm the legitimacy of any urgent requests for money.