The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an alert Wednesday to financial institutions about their obligations to report deepfakes, warning artificial intelligence has given bad actors additional tools in their arsenal.

Deepfakes are highly sophisticated fraud schemes that are crafted, often with AI, to trick intended targets into believing a phone call, email, or video is legitimate. Most often, the aim of the caller, who poses as a known bank employee or executive, is to convince the bank employee, manager–or fellow executive–that their request to transfer funds is legitimate.

Adrianne Appel writes regulatory news, policy, and trends for Compliance Week. She previously reported about policy developments for Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Government. Email: adrianne.appel@complianceweek.com LinkedIn:...