A deepfake of you or your business

Because you cannot reliably detect a deepfake, the defence is the one the whole trust economy is moving towards: verify through known channels, prove your own genuine media, tell your customers your real channels, and report fast.

What to do

• For a "the boss wants a payment" deepfake: always verify out of band. Hang up and call back on a known number, confirm any money or password request through a separate channel, and never act on urgency, because urgency is the tell. Agree a verification word for payment instructions in advance, and never authorise a transfer on a voice or video call alone.
• For a deepfaked endorsement using your face: your control over your own name, voice and likeness is the main legal lever, alongside reporting it under the platforms' manipulated-media and impersonation rules. Get ahead of it by telling your customers plainly what you will never do, for example that you will never ask them to invest in anything.
• For a reputation-damaging clip: the defamation and recourse routes apply, and the deepfake itself is evidence.
• Report to the relevant fraud authority and the police.

The limit, and the durable defence

Be careful what you claim about the law, because it is a fast-moving patchwork. A recent United States law forces fast removal of intimate deepfakes specifically, and it does not cover general business or endorsement fakes, so do not assume it does. The honest, durable defence is the same proof-not-trust move as everywhere here: you cannot stop a deepfake being made, and you usually cannot detect one, so you win by being verifiably real, by signing and owning your genuine media, and by making sure your people and customers verify before they act.