Carlo CocuzziAI Expert, Pod Cast Host, Real Estate Investor and Funding Specialist

Verified Human Identity Matters More as AI Scales | MOONSHOTS

10 May 2026 · 1 min

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Two companies fell victim to AI deepfake fraud. Airup lost $25 million when an employee was tricked into a wire transfer during a fake video call with the CFO. A controller's emergency request for $300,000 to China got $75,000 out before the FBI stopped it. As AI improves, verifying who you're actually talking to matters more.

Engineering firm called Airup lost $25 million after an employee in Hong Kong authorized a series of wire transfers during what appeared to be a routine video call with the company's CFO and several colleagues. The problem is that everyone on the call except the victim turned out to be an AI-generated deepfake.
I was on, I don't know if I told you, Peter, but I was on stage here at a company-wide meeting. We took a little 5-minute break in the middle and our controller came up to me and said, Dave, I'm so sorry. I only got half of those wire transfers to China out. I'll get the other out right away. Seriously? And then, so I got back on stage. I'm like, I wonder what she was talking about. And so then the whole second half of the company meeting in the back of my mind, I'm like, wait a minute. When I got off, she said, okay, I got $300,000 out.
I'm like, what are you doing? And she's like, well, you told me it was an emergency and we gotta get the money to China right away. Like, why would we be wiring money to China? I don't understand.
So anyway, only about $75,000 got across the border. We never got that back. Wow. And there was the FBI got into it right away.
There's a wild irony here that the more AI scales, the more valuable verified human identity becomes. This is kind of Interesting.