The name is typed
In most meeting tools anyone can type any name. The tile says “CFO” because someone wrote “CFO”.
Article · Deepfake fraud · EUDI Wallet
Who are you really talking to in that video call?
In 2024 an employee in a finance department wired about US$25 million after a video conference in which the chief financial officer and every other colleague were deepfakes. Faces and voices can now be cloned in real time. A familiar face on screen proves nothing anymore.
A call full of fakes
The employee had doubts about a payment request that arrived by e-mail. A video call was meant to settle them: the finance chief and several colleagues were there, they looked and sounded right, and they explained the transfer. The doubts went away, and the money left in a series of transfers.
Nobody in that call was real. The faces and voices were generated from public video and audio of the actual people.
Tools that swap a face or clone a voice live in a call are now easy to get. The old advice – “if in doubt, get them on video” – no longer protects you.
A deepfake can copy a face. It cannot copy the phone and the fingerprint behind the wallet.
Why video calls are so easy to fake
The video is just pixels
What you see is a stream that the sender controls completely. Software can replace the face and the voice before it leaves their computer.
Nobody checks identity
At best a meeting tool knows an e-mail address. Nothing ties the person on screen to a real, checked identity.
What we built: verified meetings
CodeB meetings now use the EUDI Wallet – the EU Digital Identity Wallet on the phone – to show who really joined.
EUDI badge for wallet sign-ins
Anyone who signs in with their EUDI Wallet gets an EUDI badge. The name on their tile comes from the identity, not from what they typed, and cannot be changed during the call.
Live check before it matters
Before a payment, a contract or sensitive data, anyone can click a person and ask for a live verification. Their wallet asks for a new sign-in with fingerprint or PIN, and everyone sees the result and the time.
Guests can be asked too
A participant without a badge can be asked to verify. If they confirm, their typed name is replaced by the name from their wallet – for everyone.
Only what is needed
Only the name, the time and the result are shown. No date of birth, no address, no document number. Meetings run in the EU or on your own server.
Honest about the limits
The badge does not analyse the face on camera, and no system can promise from the video alone that a face is real. What the badge proves is who signed in. A live check proves that the person’s own wallet confirmed just now – which needs their phone and their fingerprint or PIN.
That is exactly what a deepfake attacker does not have. They can copy how someone looks and sounds from a few minutes of video. They cannot copy the hardware key in that person’s phone.
Four rules before money moves
- Ask for a live confirmation right before a payment, a contract or sharing sensitive data – not only at the start of the call.
- No badge means unverified, not fake Ask the person to verify with their EUDI Wallet. Real colleagues can do it in seconds.
- If someone refuses or cannot, stop Confirm through a channel you already know, such as a number from your own records.
- Hold important calls as verified meetings from the start, so everyone joins with the badge.
Questions
Can a deepfake get the EUDI badge?
Not by itself. The badge comes from a sign-in with the EUDI Wallet, checked by the meeting server, and is drawn by the page next to the video – nothing in the video stream can create it. To pass a live check, an attacker would need the real person’s phone and their fingerprint or PIN.
Does CodeB detect deepfakes in the video?
No. CodeB does not analyse faces or voices. It shows who signed in with an EUDI Wallet and lets anyone ask for a live confirmation from that wallet.
Do guests need an EUDI Wallet?
No. Guests join with a link as before, without the badge. They can be asked to verify when it matters.
See how verified meetings work
The badge, the live check and asking others to verify – step by step.