Associated Incidents
Guido Crosetto, Italy's defense minister, described the incident as a "serious scam" that targeted some of the country's most important tycoons, including fashion designer Giorgio Armani, former Inter Milan owner Massimo Moratti, Prada co-founder Patrizio Bertelli, and members of the billionaire Beretta and Menarini families, according to Euronews, citing Italian media.
Specifically, the scammers cloned the official's voice using AI, after which they began contacting the businessmen. On behalf of Minister Guido Crosetto, they were asked to transfer an amount of approximately 1 million euros to a bank account in Hong Kong. The money, the scammers said, was needed to ransom Italian journalists kidnapped in the Middle East.
The Minister of Defense wrote about this incident on his X account, saying that he received a call from a well-known businessman who is a friend of his, who asked him why his secretary was asking for his mobile number. Guido Crosetto allegedly replied that this was impossible and asked his staff if anyone had contacted the businessman, all of whom confirmed that they had not.
Then, the minister said, he was contacted by another large entrepreneur, whom he did not know personally, who told him that he had transferred a very large sum of money to a bank account given by a fake “General Giovanni Montalbano”, after talking to someone who the businessman believed was Guido Crosetto himself.