How to avoid AI imitating your clients to defraud your firm

We get asked regularly how firms can protect themselves against AI impersonating their client's voice / image and resulting in a fraud or security breach.

The first and essential best practice you can implement is a countersign system with your clients (it costs nothing and will save you a ton of pain). In the military, a countersign is a secret pre-agreed sign, word, or phrase that is exchanged between a guard and someone approaching their post.

The purpose of a countersign is to allow authorised people to pass through a guarded area.

Please set this up with all your clients and have it saved in your practice manager / CRM system. It's essential your team can access it quickly when a client calls, so that it becomes habit in your firm to validate who's on the line every time.

Example: Accountant says to client "what do you have on toast"

Client says to accountant "butter and marmalade, never marmite"

Change it every 3-months and make it part of your routine. Client's may moan, but they'll moan a lot more if you get caught off guard by fraudsters.