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Italy’s business elites are plagued by a scam that uses AI-generated voices to mimic Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, asking tycoons to connect millions of dollars to overseas bank accounts to help The ransom was free to release Italian journalists kidnapped overseas.
The scam targeted some of Italy’s most powerful business barons, including Pirelli chair Marco Tronchetti Provera, fashion designer Giorgio Armani, Prada co-fou nder Patrizio Bertelli, Tod’s owner Diego Della Valle, former Inter Milan owner Massimo Moratti and members of the billionaire Beretta and Menarini A person familiar with the matter said, family.
Although many were immediately suspicious, at least one person was persuaded to transfer €1MN to an overseas bank account because it was wrongly guaranteed that he would pay his payment later at the Italian bank. So far, three Milanese businessmen have filed formal complaints with the city’s prosecutor’s office, including a victim of the scam.
Authorities familiar with the case said the fraud involved multiple rounds of calls from people who pretended to be Crosetto’s employees and the obvious use of AI to convince Crosetto. The target was told that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government needed their help to rescue Italian journalists kidnapped in the Middle East.
“The minister’s voice was copied,” the defense official said. “It asked for money to pay ransom for Italian journalists who were kidnapped in the world. “I can’t pay with the department, but you’ll take it from the Italian bank,” said the fake Crosetto. money. “That’s a scam. It’s not true.”
Investigators said the calls appear to come from phone numbers belonging to the Defense Secretary staff, who they believe were cloned.
The scammers moved for weeks after the Meloni administration negotiated a high-profile hostage swap.
Crosetto first issued an alert on a “serious ongoing scam” in a social media post last week, saying he wanted to raise public awareness so that “no one risked the trap.”
The minister said he first discovered after contacting a famous entrepreneur he had never met before and transferring the large sums to a forged bank account of “General Giovanni Montalbano”. Crosette himself.
Crosette said he later received calls from several other top entrepreneurs who had contacted people who claimed to be his employees trying to organize a bailout for Italian journalists in the Middle East.
The Italian bank warned on Friday that the fraudster’s name and logo improper guarantee that the central bank will repay wealthy entrepreneurs’ investments as funds for donations to fake rescue plans.
“Banca d’Italia has absolutely nothing to do with any of these requests,” the statement said. The statement warned people not to respond and report such proposals to relevant authorities.
Italy’s business elite is not the first scam to be deceived to prey on the scam that a cautious government seeks to save hostages.
In France, more than 150 company leaders, heads of state, ambassadors and religious leaders came into contact with French Minister of Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian in a bold scam, There was a bold scam at the time that demanded millions of European operations, including the release of French journalists hostages in Syria.
Despite the discomfort of most people, the fraudsters charged $85 million in revenue, including nearly $2 million from the late World Ismali Muslim leader Aga Khan. Franco – Israel’s leader Gilbert Chikli was convicted of multiple frauds in 2020 and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Other reports by Giuliana Ricozzi
