Tech risks: e‑signatures meet deepfakes
Law offices face a 'digital signature mess' that delays filings and a parallel surge in AI deepfakes that heighten identity and document‑fraud risks for immigration intake and court submissions. Firms are being pushed to audit e‑signature workflows and tighten verification as AI‑driven fraud accelerates. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) (reuters.com) (digitaltrends.com)
Sign.com’s survey of 1,000 Americans found 45% admit they “ghosted” an e‑signature request and 1 in 4 lose track of documents at least weekly, signaling routine breakdowns in digital signoff chains. (sign.com ) BigHand’s 2025 Legal Workflow Leadership Report shows only 51% of firms have implemented workflow management technology and 31% report lawyers are doing more administrative work—conditions that concentrate signature handoffs and increase the chance of missed approvals. (bighand.com ) Legal‑tech vendors say firms are adopting e‑signature platforms to speed intake but warn that misconfigured approval routing and unattended signature requests create “stalled” matters and compliance risks; vendors offering onboarding and workflow automation cite measurable conversion and efficiency gains. (lawruler.com ) (workstorm.com ) USCIS kept the COVID‑era flexibility that allows electronically reproduced handwritten signatures when the agency made that policy permanent on July 25, 2022, yet practitioners reported RFEs, NOIDs and occasional denials in 2024–2025 when originals could not be produced. (asistahelp.org ) (rnlawgroup.com ) New fraud research finds organizations are underprepared for AI‑powered forgeries: the ACFE/SAS 2026 Anti‑Fraud Technology Benchmarking Report surveyed 713 professionals and reported only 7% say their organizations are more than moderately prepared while 77% flagged a rise in deepfake social engineering and 75% reported growth in generative‑AI document forgery. (sas.com ) Industry analysis warns generative AI is multiplying loss exposure—Deloitte estimates U.S. fraud losses could reach $40 billion by 2027 (up from $12.3 billion in 2023) and documents a January 2024 Hong Kong case in which a deepfake-induced video led to a $25 million fraudulent transfer. (deloitte.com ) Specialist trackers report steep increases in gen‑AI scams—TRM Labs/Chainabuse data show a 456% rise in generative‑AI scam reports between May 2024 and April 2025—and Experian’s Jan. 13, 2026 Future of Fraud Forecast singles out agentic AI and deepfakes as top identity risks, prompting industry calls for stronger identity proofing and conservative retention of wet‑ink originals in regulated filings. (trmlabs.com ) (experianplc.com )
