A cloned voice helped scam Italy's Fideuram out of €95 million
Newsroom / Security and Privacy desk
A WhatsApp message, a call in a cloned voice and a stack of forged documents were enough to move €95 million out of a private bank.
How the scam worked
In February 2026, Paolo Molesini, then chairman of Fideuram, the private banking arm of Intesa Sanpaolo, received a WhatsApp message that appeared to come from Intesa CEO Carlo Messina, asking for urgent help with an overseas transaction.
A call followed from someone who appeared to be a senior partner at a prominent law firm, confirming the deal. Sources told Reuters that the lawyer’s voice had been recreated with AI. Molesini was also sent 11 documents, including an apparent power of attorney bearing Messina’s signature, Cybernews reported.
The bank sent about €95 million ($108 million) to accounts mainly in China and Hong Kong. Fideuram spotted the irregularities, and authorities in Italy, Portugal and China helped recover about €53 million. The remaining funds, about €36 million according to the sources, have not been traced after passing through overseas accounts and being converted into cryptocurrency. Milan prosecutors are investigating a foreign national living outside Europe for suspected computer fraud, one of the sources told Reuters.
Why controls did not stop it
Fideuram is a bank with fraud controls, and the scheme still worked because it attacked the signal people trust most: a familiar voice confirming a familiar name, backed by paperwork that looked right. Each layer made the next one more believable.
The cheapest defense is procedural rather than technical. A code word agreed in advance for urgent money requests, and a callback on a number already on file rather than one supplied in the message, could have broken the chain at its first link. The same two habits apply to a family transfer as much as to a nine-figure wire.
Sources
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