AI Deepfakes Used in Romance and Investment Scams
Scammers deployed AI-generated deepfakes to impersonate Italian government officials and romance interests, defrauding business leaders including a former Inter Milan chairman. Italian police and Europol have identified the tactic as part of a surge in AI-enabled romance and investment fraud.
What happened
Scammers used AI-generated deepfakes to impersonate Italian government officials and romance interests, targeting victims across online platforms. In one case, fraudsters impersonated Italy's Defence Minister to deceive business leaders into transferring funds.
Italian police halted a transaction on 12 February in which a prominent businessman was being defrauded. According to Europol, AI-generated scripts enable scammers to target multiple victims simultaneously, particularly through social media and dating applications.
Reported impact
Massimo Moratti, former chairman of Inter Milan football club, was reportedly tricked into transferring approximately 1 million euro to an account belonging to fraudsters posing as the Italian Defence Minister.
Europol noted that artificial intelligence, combined with geopolitical conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, has driven a surge in romance scams across dating platforms and social networks.
Index analysis
The use of deepfake technology allows scammers to create convincing audio and video impersonations of high-profile figures, increasing both the scale and credibility of fraud attempts. AI-generated scripts reduce the manual effort required to conduct personalized social engineering attacks.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.