Italy's top bank hit by an AI messaging scam which cost it nearly €100 million
Bank chairman believed he was talking to a lawyer and ended up ordering a multi-million-dollar wire transfer.
An Italian bank, Fideuram – Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking, suffered a near €100 million loss due to an AI-powered deepfake scam. Fraudsters impersonated senior executives through messaging apps and cloned voices. The incident took place in February 2026 at the bank, which manages over $513.25 billion in assets under management and has more than 7,100 private bankers.
According to two sources, the attack ensued when the bank's chairman, Paolo Molesini, received a WhatsApp message that allegedly came from Intesa Sanpaolo CEO, Carlo Messina. Messina's request for an urgent overseas transfer led Molesini to agree, after being contacted by an individual who used AI to replicate the lawyer's voice.
The chairman then instructed the finance department to execute several transactions to foreign accounts, primarily in China and Hong Kong. After the scam was detected, Fideuram attempted to halt the transactions; however, around $60.14 million was recovered, while the remaining $40.8 million is unaccounted for, likely converted into cryptocurrencies.
Molesini resigned in March 2026, citing personal reasons, and is not under investigation, but a foreign national living outside Europe is being probed for potential fraud. The scam illustrates the evolving nature of Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks in the AI era, where cybercriminals can create deepfakes, voice clones, and even videos to deceive victims.
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