Crozetto Guido (Guido Crosetto)

Biography

2025: Using deepfake by phone scammers to lure money from billionaires

On February 9, 2025, it became known that telephone scammers used artificial intelligence tools to create deepfakes of Italian Defense Minister Guido Crozetto and other officials. Using synthesized voices, attackers lured money from a number of Italian entrepreneurs and billionaires.

According to Bloomberg, fraudsters convinced wealthy people to contribute to the ransom for Italian citizens imprisoned or abducted in Iran and Syria. The scheme was implemented shortly after the release of Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist who was held in a Tehran prison and was released in mid-January 2025.

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Фото: Freepik

According to available information, the victims of the criminals were the president of the Prada fashion house Patrizio Bertelli, fashion designer Giorgio Armani, executive vice-chairman of Pirelli & C. SpA Marco Troncetti Provera and billionaire Massimo Moratti, former owner of the Milan football club Inter. Moreover, Moratti confirmed to La Repubblica that he had transferred an unnamed amount of money after receiving a call from scammers.

At the same time, Crozetto, in a message on social platform X, said that he was aware of telephone fraud using deepfakes. According to him, the attackers contacted a certain "large entrepreneur," convincing him to transfer funds. The minister stressed that information about the criminal scheme was sent to the police and courts.

Bloomberg emphasizes that deepfakes are increasingly being used by cybercriminals to steal funds from businessmen. In July 2024, a Ferrari NV executive was contacted by a fraudster trying to impersonate the company's chief executive Benedetto Viña: he asked to prepare a large sum of money to transfer to a deal in China. But the attempted fraud failed.^[1]

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