Phone scammers used artificial intelligence (AI) to impersonate Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto and other officials and persuade some Italian businessmen to transfer money.
The victims included Prada president Patrizio Bertelli, fashion designer Giorgio Armani, executive vice chairman of Pirelli & C. SpA Marco Tronchetti Provera and billionaire Massimo Moratti, former owner of Inter Milan football club, specified Italian media such as La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera.
At the same time, Moratti said he transferred the money after he was contacted, La Repubblica noted. The agency specified that the scammers asked to pay the ransom of Italian citizens imprisoned or kidnapped in Iran and Syria.
Earlier, Crosetto wrote on his X that two “big” businessmen had contacted the minister and claimed to have received a call on his behalf asking him to transfer money.
“I am informed that a prominent businessman, whom I do not know, would like to contact me. I give him my mobile phone. He calls me and tells me that he received a call from me and then some “general” and that he made a very large transfer to the account indicated to him by the general,” he also said.
Audio fakes are increasingly being used to steal money from businessmen. In July 2024, for example, a Ferrari NV executive was contacted by a fraudster trying to impersonate CEO Benedetto Vigna and asked to prepare a large sum of money to be transferred to a deal in China. However, the attempt then failed.
