Deepfake Cryptocurrency Scam Allegedly Impersonates Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

A deepfake scam allegedly impersonating Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni circulated on various platforms. It reportedly promoted a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment scheme. The deepfakes claimed the scheme was state-backed, promising €40,000 in guaranteed income. Victims were urged to invest €250, only to lose access to funds. Italy’s Consob blocked the deceptive ads and websites, marking the first enforcement of new financial fraud regulations.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 4 Malicious actors
• Primary risk subdomain: 4.3 Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

The incident involves the use of AI-generated deepfakes of public figures to orchestrate a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment scam targeting consumers for financial gain.

Additional risk subdomains

• 3.1 False or misleading information: The deepfake videos generated false and misleading information regarding a state-backed guaranteed income program to deceive users.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Intentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The incident was initiated by human scammers who intentionally deployed deepfake technology to defraud consumers.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Limited Risk: The report describes the use of AI-generated content such as deepfakes, which are classified as limited risk under the EU AI Act and are subject to transparency obligations.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: None named
• AI purpose: Deepfake Video Generation; Voice Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Unknown deepfake technology developers
• Alleged deployer: Unknown scammers impersonating Sergio Mattarella and Giorgia Meloni, Unknown scammers
• Alleged harmed parties: Sergio Mattarella, Giorgia Meloni, General public of Italy

Harm severity

Severity ratings are based on this scale.

Highest direct severity in any category: Minor. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Privacy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

Malicious content

Reported: Yes, the report describes malicious deepfake videos of political figures used to promote a financial scam.

Directly caused: Deepfake videos of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella were created and distributed on various websites and platforms.

Inferred additional harm: It is likely that these videos reached thousands of social media and website users before being blocked by Consob.

Epistemic

Reported: Yes, the report describes the fabrication of statements by political figures claiming a state-licensed guaranteed income program exists.

Directly caused: The deepfake videos fabricated statements from Giorgia Meloni claiming a state-backed guaranteed income of 40,000 euros per month.

Inferred additional harm: The spread of highly sophisticated deepfakes of state leaders erodes public trust in digital media and official announcements.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly exposed: 1000

Potential causes

Management

• Ad Platform Profit Prioritization: Platforms accepted ad payments without verifying the legitimacy of the content.

Technology

• Sophisticated Deepfake Generation: AI tools allowed creation of highly realistic fake videos of public figures.
• Unregulated Hosting Platforms: Online platforms hosted and distributed fraudulent AI-generated videos.
• Fake Trading Platform Software: Sites were designed to show simulated gains to deceive victims.

Data Inputs

• Public Video and Audio Data: Abundant public footage of Giorgia Meloni was used to train the deepfake.

Human Factors

• Trust in Public Figures: Victims trusted the message because it appeared to come from the Premier.
• Financial Vulnerability: Promise of quick riches exploited victims' desire for financial improvement.
• Lack of Deepfake Awareness: Users could not distinguish between real and AI-generated videos.

Process and Methods

• Social Engineering Tactics: Criminals used phone follow-ups to guide victims through the deposit process.
• Untraceable Financial Transfers: Wire transfers to non-existent foreign companies hid the money trail.
• Delayed Ad Moderation: Ad networks failed to detect and block the fraudulent ads before publication.

Regulatory Environment

• Lag in Regulatory Powers: Authorities previously lacked the power to quickly block unauthorized ads.
• Cross-Border Jurisdictional Issues: Funds were sent to foreign entities, complicating recovery and prosecution.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report clearly outlines the nature of the scam, the specific public figures impersonated, the regulatory response by Consob, and the mechanics of the fraud. While the specific AI model is not named, this does not hinder the classification of the risk domain or causal factors.
• Ambiguities identified: The specific AI models or platforms used to generate the deepfakes are not identified.

Scammers deployed highly sophisticated deepfakes of Italy's President and Prime Minister to promote a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. While the immediate financial fraud was mitigated by regulatory intervention, the incident underscores the growing risk of high-level political impersonation for malicious purposes, posing minor threats to information security and public trust.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Scope: Single nation
• Primary target: Italy
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. The immediate threat was mitigated by regulatory intervention, but the incident highlights an ongoing strategic concern regarding AI-enabled impersonation.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. AI tools were strictly used to generate synthetic content, while human operators managed the distribution, targeting, and execution of the scam.
• Novelty: Evolved capability. While deepfake scams are established, the dual-impersonation of a nation's top two political figures with high sophistication represents an evolved threat level.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. The incident was a digital financial scam with no physical threat to infrastructure or human safety.
• Information security: Minor. Sophisticated deepfakes of top state leaders were distributed, representing an evolved capability in synthetic media, though the intent was financial fraud rather than state-sponsored information warfare.
• Sovereignty: Minor. Unauthorized use of the President and Prime Minister's likenesses could impact public trust in official communications, though it did not disrupt actual government decision-making or operations.
• Economic security: Minor. The incident targeted individual consumers with a cryptocurrency fraud scheme, causing minor financial losses but posing no systemic risk to the national financial system.
• Societal stability: Negligible. The fraud did not cause large-scale civil unrest, systemic discrimination, or widespread erosion of civil liberties.