Some of Italy’s best-known business leaders, including the fashion designer Giorgio Armani and the Prada chair, Patrizio Bertelli, have been targeted by an artificial intelligence-based scam that involved the mimicking of the defence minister’s voice in telephone calls claiming to seek help to free Italian journalists kidnapped in the Middle East.
AI phone scam targets Italian business leaders including Giorgio Armani Cloned voice of defence minister, Guido Crosetto, used in some calls asking for money to free kidnapped journalists.
The defence minister, Guido Crosetto, on Monday said he would submit a legal complaint after his voice was cloned and used in at least one of the calls.
As of Monday, the legal complaints submitted include one from a member of the Aleotti family, which heads the Menarini pharmaceutical firm, and one from a member of the family that owns the Esselunga supermarket chain.
At least one of the targets is known to have fallen for the scam and was duped into making two transfers totalling €1m to an account in Hong Kong after falsely believing they would be reimbursed by the Bank of Italy.
