Technique

Deepfake Video Call

Also known as: Video Call Spoofing, Live Deepfake Impersonation, AI Face-Swap Call

DELIVERY

Using AI-generated real-time video to impersonate known contacts, executives, or authority figures during video calls. Attackers use face-swapping and facial landmark manipulation tools to overlay a target person's likeness onto their own face in live video conferencing. Often combined with voice cl…

Common attack flows

How it fits in a scam

This technique shows up duringDELIVERY

Before

After

This is often where the scam ends.

Defense

How to defend against this

How to spot it

  • Ask caller to turn head fully sideways -- deepfakes distort or break on profile views where face landmark detectors fail
  • Watch for lighting/shadow inconsistencies between face and background that violate physics of light
  • Check for unnatural blinking patterns -- too fast
  • too slow
  • or absent
  • Look for lip-sync delays (~100ms gap between audio and mouth movement)
  • Notice absent human sounds like breathing pauses between phrases
  • Watch for facial artifacts or flickering around hairline and jaw edges
  • Check pupil reflections -- real eyes reflect same pattern in both pupils
  • deepfakes often differ
  • Request spontaneous hand gestures near face -- deepfakes distort when hands cross the face boundary
  • Be suspicious of calls with unusual urgency requesting wire transfers or sensitive actions

Steps you can take

Seen in the wild

Where we’ve seen it

Commonly targets

Further reading