Associated Incidents
Some of Italy's biggest businessmen have been victims of an attempted fraud by a group of criminals who used an artificial intelligence (AI) program to simulate the voice of the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto. Their goal was to ask them to hand over large sums of money supposedly intended to facilitate the release of Italian journalists kidnapped in Iran and Syria. In the phone calls they received, they were promised that the funds would then be returned to them via the Bank of Italy.
At least one businessman, Massimo Moratti, former president of the oil company Saras and the football club Inter Milan, is said to have sent nearly a million euros to the criminals via international transfers. "It all seemed absolutely true. "It's something that can happen, even if you don't expect it," Moratti explained in an interview with the newspaper La Repubblica.
Last week, the former Inter president was the first to report the fraud to the carabinieri and, since then, at least three other important businessmen have reportedly turned to the security forces to admit that they had also been victims of the deception, according to the Italian media.
The criminals are said to have come into contact with some of the country's best-known businessmen, such as designer Giorgio Armani (https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/temas/armani), Diego Della Valle, owner of Tod's, and the Caltagirone and Beretta families, known for their interests in construction and arms manufacturing, respectively.
The list of possible victims grows
Crosetto himself announced that he is going to file a complaint in court against these "professional fraudsters", who, as he acknowledged on the television channel Rete Quattro, have demonstrated great technological skill in plagiarizing his voice and coming into contact with some of the largest fortunes in Italy.
"These businessmen are people who, out of love for their country, were willing to make a transfer if a minister asked them to. We must sound the alarm, because there are people who continue to fall for it," he said. In fact, since the news broke, the list of alleged victims has not stopped growing and even Moretti has acknowledged that he continues to receive calls in which the criminals asked him for new sums of money.