We give a negative answer to the embedded Zariski multiplicity conjecture. We construct two reduced hypersurface germs that are ambiently homeomorphic but have multiplicities two and three. Both have isolated singularities and lie in a common complex affine space of dimension divisible by eight. Their defining function germs are also topologically right equivalent, and the same examples answer Arnold's corank problem negatively for ambient topological equivalence.

We give a negative answer to Zariski's multiplicity question in four complex variables. We construct two reduced convergent holomorphic function germs with isolated critical points and multiplicities four and five whose zero-set germs are ambiently homeomorphic.