Fake Italian minister wanted to deceive billionaires

A fake Italian minister wanted to scam billionaires has been pestering entrepreneurs and owners of multimillion-dollar fortunes in Italy. At least one victim fell for the fake voice of Guido Crossetto.

Transmits UNN with reference to Euronews and FT.

Details

In Italy, phone scammers imitated the voice of Defense Minister Guido Crossetto to lure huge sums of money from large entrepreneurs and corporate executives. Among those who were disturbed by the AI-simulated voice of the Italian government representative were such well-known figures as Pirelli CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera, fashion designer Giorgio Armani, Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli, Tod's owner Diego Della Valle, former Inter Milan owner Massimo Moratti, and members of the Beretta and Menarinid billionaire families.

A number of the country's richest people received phone calls on behalf of Guido Crozetto and his employees asking them to transfer about a million euros to a bank account in Hong Kong. The money was supposed to be used to pay a ransom for the release of kidnapped Italian journalists in the Middle East.

Artificial intelligence was used to convincingly imitate Crozetto's voice.

I can't pay with the ministry's money, but you will get money from the Bank of Italy

At least one of the summoned businessmen was persuaded, the media reported.

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Italian authorities have launched an investigation. Last week, Italian Defense Minister Crozetto warned of a social media scam.

Crozetto himself called the story "absurd" on his page in X.

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