Associated Incidents
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto has alerted the public to a scam in which imposters use artificial intelligence to clone his voice and solicit funds from wealthy businessmen. Scammers impersonate Crosetto and claim to need urgent funding to pay the ransom of journalists supposedly detained in the Middle East, presenting it as a matter of national security.
The targets of the scam included personalities such as Giorgio Armani, Patrizio Bertelli and the Beretta family. Although most attempts were unsuccessful, billionaire Massimo Moratti revealed that he had transferred an undisclosed sum after being contacted. Italian police have yet to identify any suspects, and technological advances have facilitated such scams, which according to the NGO Global Anti-Scam Alliance, cause annual losses of more than a trillion dollars.