Milan: Italian authorities have successfully frozen almost € 1 million (£ 870,000) after an outstanding businessman was the victim of a sophisticated scam that involves artificial intelligence.
The authorities revealed on Wednesday that the funds, which were transferred to a foreign bank account, were part of a scheme where the scammers used AI to impersonate the Italian defense minister, Guido Crosetto.
The scammers used AI to imitate the voice of the minister, making calls that claimed to seek urgent financial assistance for the liberation of Italian journalists kidnapped in the Middle East.
Some of the most outstanding commercial figures in Italy, including fashion designer Giorgio Armani and the co -founder of Prada, Patrizio Bertelli, were attacked, prosecutors said in Milan earlier this week. However, it was only believed that Massimo Moratti, the former owner of the Inter Milan football club, had sent the requested funds.
The authorities said they thought it would be difficult to recover lost funds, but on Wednesday they revealed that the cash had been tracked to the Netherlands.
“I am very happy that the money taken from a fraud of an entrepreneur, using my voice and falsified name, is traced to a Dutch account and freeze completely,” Crosetto said in X. “Excellent work of the magistrates and police forces .
There were no immediate comments from Moratti, which had transferred two payments for a total of almost a million euros, under the wrong belief that the Bank of Italy reimburses it, sources familiar with the case said.
Moratti filed a legal complaint last week after realizing that he had been deceived. “Everything seemed real. They were good. I could happen to anyone,” the Repubblica told Italian the weekend.
The scam involved the scammers who passed through officials of the Ministry of Defense, with calls that seemed originated in government offices in Rome. Then they passed the phone to a man who said it was Crosetto, who asked for money, saying that it could not be seen that the government was behind the transactions.
The defense minister has said that they used AI technology to convince his voice convincingly.
