Italy's largest bank loses $108M in AI scam
What's the story
Italy's largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, has lost a whopping €95 million ($108 million) to an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven scam. The fraud was perpetrated by scammers impersonating Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Carlo Messina in a WhatsApp message, and then a senior partner at a prominent law firm in a follow-up call. While over half of the stolen funds have been recovered, some €36 million still remains unaccounted for.
Fraud details
Scam started with WhatsApp message
The scam began in February when Paolo Molesini, then Chairman of Fideuram, received what appeared to be a WhatsApp message from Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Carlo Messina.
The message sought urgent help with an overseas transaction.
A follow-up call from someone impersonating a senior partner at a prominent law firm confirmed the instruction.
The callers used AI technology to replicate the lawyer's voice.
Transfer
Fideuram made series of transfers to foreign accounts
Believing the request was genuine, Molesini instructed his finance department to make a series of transfers to foreign accounts, mainly in China and Hong Kong. However, irregularities were detected in the transfers. Fideuram quickly alerted banks and authorities across several countries about the fraudulent activity.
Recovery efforts
Around €53M was recovered
Thanks to international cooperation between authorities in China, Portugal, and Italy, around €53 million was recovered.
The remaining funds have been untraceable after passing through a web of foreign accounts and being converted into cryptocurrencies.
Despite the incident, neither Molesini nor any other Fideuram executives are under investigation.
However, Milan prosecutors have put a non-European national living outside Europe under investigation for computer fraud.