Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo Falls Victim to Record-Breaking Deepfake Scam

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest bank, suffered a significant loss of €95 million due to an AI-powered deepfake scam. The fraudsters posed as senior executives and tricked Fideuram, the private banking arm of Intesa Sanpaolo, into wiring money to Asia.

The scheme started in February with a WhatsApp message sent to Paolo Molesini, then the chairman of Fideuram, which appeared to come from Intesa Sanpaolo's chief executive, Carlo Messina. The message requested urgent help with an overseas transaction.

Shortly after, a supposed senior partner at a prominent law firm confirmed the request by phone using AI- generated voice cloning technology. Molesini instructed the finance department to send the money, mostly to accounts in China and Hong Kong.

Fideuram detected the irregularities quickly and alerted authorities in several countries. Cooperation among investigators recovered about €53 million, but roughly €36 million remains missing after being converted into cryptocurrency.