Fraudsters using AI to impersonate senior executives stole €95 million ($108 million, approximately Rs 10,34,00,00,000) from Fideuram, the private banking arm of Italy’s biggest lender Intesa Sanpaolo, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The fraudsters followed up with a phone call that appeared to come from a senior partner at a prominent law firm, confirming the instruction. Intesa Sanpaolo and Fideuram declined to comment. Fideuram quickly detected irregularities in the transfers and alerted banks and authorities in several countries. Read More: How To Spot the Red Flags Of Artificial Intelligence Scams Molesini resigned as chairman in March citing personal reasons. At the time, Fideuram gave no further explanation for his departure. The money was later recovered. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
More than half the funds were later recovered, but some €36 million remains missing, the sources said. Read More| Cybercrime Gangs Extorted Over $88 Billion In Scams From Asia-Pacific: Report Believing the request was genuine, Molesini instructed his finance department to arrange a series of transfers to foreign accounts, mainly in China and Hong Kong, the sources said. Roughly €53 million was later recovered through cooperation between authorities in China, Portugal and Italy, according to the sources. Last year, fraudsters using AI to mimic the voice of an Italian minister persuaded businessman Massimo Moratti to transfer nearly €1 million to an overseas account.
The callers used AI technology to replicate the lawyer’s voice, according to the sources. The remaining funds have not been traced after passing through a network of overseas accounts and being converted into cryptocurrencies, they said. Neither Molesini nor any other Fideuram executives are under investigation, the sources said. However, Milan prosecutors have placed a foreign national living outside Europe under investigation on suspicion of computer fraud, one of the sources said.
