Aug 19, 2026 · 26 min · 10 segments
In this episode, we take a look at corporate impersonation: an insidious form of fraud. Today’s technology has lowered the barriers to entry for corporate imposters, and their efforts can be…
Avigyan DasGuest
Alex RothwellGuest
Guy RuddleHost
So I understand that in your world you have this concept of social engineering as a sort of way of describing how fraud happens.
our transactions in life are based on trust in some form, whether it's somebody you know or whether it's a position of authority that you trust.
There's that famous thing, isn't there, that people are wearing a fluorescent tabard.
People have been proven to listen more or take instructions from people just because they're wearing a fluorescent jacket in a car park because we expect them to be giving instructions or asking us to do something.
So this concept of social engineering plays on that feeling of trust that we have.
That to take a course of action, which you certainly wouldn't do if you knew what was actually sitting behind it.
And I think for me, that's what it looks like across the whole fraud landscape.
I mean, it's just psychological nudge, right? Which you probably wouldn't do things if you are thinking through the box, right? So they would leverage, for example, authority, right? a CEO calls someone, right, and tell, I'm the CEO, can you do this? So leveraging authority, you know, leveraging urgency, we have got an urgent payment to make, right? There's a very sensitive investigation going on.
Don't talk about this to any of your employees, right? So there are typical trends that you can follow, right? And there is so much information that are available online to kind of impersonate someone.
I could find so much information about that organization, A, through their website, B, through LinkedIn profile, three, through social media.
I probably, if I wanted to do that, I could potentially scan through all the social network that are available.
I could see where he's traveling, where his office is, what color car he drives, right? So much information.
And Actually, organization pays a lot of money to the marketing team to make those people available to the world.
But also there is a fine balance between privacy and how much you're putting it out as well.
I suspect that most of the people listening to this podcast don't consider themselves to be vulnerable people.
And that's what we see time and again with fraud, that sense of creating a sense of urgency.
You know, we see it with, you know, in online shopping and things, you know, only two left, you know, you need to buy now, you know, discount applicable today only, that sort of thing.
Fraudsters use all the same sales techniques to convince you to take a course of action that you wouldn't have ordinarily taken.
And to impersonate a voice, I mean, it only takes three seconds of audio sample, right, that I could create someone's voice.
So I understand that in your world you have this concept of social engineering as a sort of way of describing how fraud happens.
our transactions in life are based on trust in some form, whether it's somebody you know or whether it's a position of authority that you trust.
There's that famous thing, isn't there, that people are wearing a fluorescent tabard.
People have been proven to listen more or take instructions from people just because they're wearing a fluorescent jacket in a car park because we expect them to be giving instructions or asking us to do something.
So this concept of social engineering plays on that feeling of trust that we have.
That to take a course of action, which you certainly wouldn't do if you knew what was actually sitting behind it.
And I think for me, that's what it looks like across the whole fraud landscape.
I mean, it's just psychological nudge, right? Which you probably wouldn't do things if you are thinking through the box, right? So they would leverage, for example, authority, right? a CEO calls someone, right, and tell, I'm the CEO, can you do this? So leveraging authority, you know, leveraging urgency, we have got an urgent payment to make, right? There's a very sensitive investigation going on.
Don't talk about this to any of your employees, right? So there are typical trends that you can follow, right? And there is so much information that are available online to kind of impersonate someone.
I could find so much information about that organization, A, through their website, B, through LinkedIn profile, three, through social media.
I probably, if I wanted to do that, I could potentially scan through all the social network that are available.
I could see where he's traveling, where his office is, what color car he drives, right? So much information.
And Actually, organization pays a lot of money to the marketing team to make those people available to the world.
But also there is a fine balance between privacy and how much you're putting it out as well.
I suspect that most of the people listening to this podcast don't consider themselves to be vulnerable people.
And that's what we see time and again with fraud, that sense of creating a sense of urgency.
You know, we see it with, you know, in online shopping and things, you know, only two left, you know, you need to buy now, you know, discount applicable today only, that sort of thing.
Fraudsters use all the same sales techniques to convince you to take a course of action that you wouldn't have ordinarily taken.
And to impersonate a voice, I mean, it only takes three seconds of audio sample, right, that I could create someone's voice.
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