Heard his boss's voice – and fell for a $100 million scam
The chairman of an Italian bank was tricked into transferring $100 million after scammers used artificial intelligence to clone the voice of a lawyer. The fraud began with a WhatsApp message and a fake phone call. About $60 million was recovered, while $40.8 million is missing and was likely converted into cryptocurrency. The chairman resigned.
Paolo Molsini, chairman of the Italian private banking group Fidaurum, fell victim to a sophisticated cyber fraud worth $100 million. The scammers used artificial intelligence to accurately clone the voice of a senior lawyer, and called Molsini after sending him a WhatsApp message supposedly from the CEO of the parent company. Molsini was convinced to authorize fund transfers to accounts in China and Hong Kong. The fraud was discovered shortly afterward, and with the help of police forces in Italy, Portugal, and China, about $60 million was recovered. Approximately $40.8 million is still missing and was likely converted into cryptocurrencies. Following the embarrassment, Molsini resigned from his position about a month later. The article notes that in the past, similar scams relied on email hacking, but today voice and image forgeries make frauds more convincing. The key lesson: do not trust voice messages or phone calls, and verify any request for money transfer through a separate channel.