Scammers clone Italian minister’s voice with AI in ransom scheme

A scam used an artificial intelligence-generated voice impersonating Italy’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto to ask some of the nation’s top tycoons to wire money overseas.

Scammers targeted fashion designer Giorgio Armani, former Inter Milan owner Massimo Moratti, Prada co-founder Patrizio Bertelli, and members of the billionaire Beretta and Menarini families, among several others, according to reports in Italian media.

The scam involved phone calls from people posing as Crosetto and his staff. The targets were asked to transfer a sum of around €1 million to a Hong Kong-based bank account, which they were told was needed to free kidnapped Italian journalists in the Middle East.

Writing on X last week, Crosetto gave details about what he called a “serious scam” and “an absurd affair”.

The minister said he received a call on Tuesday from a friend — “a big businessman” — asking why Crosetto’s secretary had phoned to ask for his mobile number.

Crosetto said he told him that it was absurd and impossible, but that he had checked to be sure and that his staff confirmed that no one had called the businessman.

Crosetto said he was then contacted by an entrepreneur whom he did not know and who had wired a large sum to a bank account given by a fake “General Giovanni Montalbano” after speaking to someone that the businessman thought was Crosetto.

The minister said he informed the businessman that it was a scam before alerting the authorities, who went to the individual’s house to take details and register a complaint.

Crosetto said it had then happened several more times in the following days.

“I prefer to make the facts public so that no one runs the risk of falling into the trap,” he wrote on X.

Authorities in Italy are now investigating the matter and going through the list of targets.

It is unclear whether Crosetto’s voice was a pre-recorded message or a filter created with artificial intelligence that allowed the scammers to modify his voice in real time.

The scam came shortly after the government of Giorgia Meloni secured the release of Cecilia Sala, the Italian journalist who was held for about a month in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison before being freed in mid-January.

Of those targeted by the scammers, Moratti has already filed a complaint, as have the Aleotti and Beretta families, according to Italian media.

“I’d rather not say any more, let’s see how the investigation goes on,” Moratti told La Repubblica. “At the moment I prefer to stay calm. I have filed a complaint, of course.”

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Asked whether he had paid €1 million to the scammers, the Milan businessman told the newspaper: “It is correct to say I have filed a complaint, let’s wait and then I will tell you.”