On Tuesday morning this month, a senior executive at Ferrari NV began receiving a series of unexpected messages that appeared to come from the CEO.
“Hey, did you hear we’re planning a big acquisition? I might need your help,” one of the messages purporting to be from CEO Benedetto Vigna read.
The WhatsApp messages seen by Bloomberg did not come from Vigna’s usual business mobile phone number. The profile picture is also different, although it shows the bespectacled CEO in a suit and tie, arms crossed in front of Ferrari’s Prancing Horse logo.
“Be prepared to sign a confidentiality agreement that our attorneys will send to you as soon as possible,” another message from a Wigner impersonator read. “The Italian market regulator and the Milan Stock Exchange have been informed. Be prepared and please proceed with caution.
What happened next was one of the latest uses of deepfake tools to conduct live phone conversations aimed at infiltrating an internationally recognized business, according to people familiar with the matter. The Italian supercar maker emerged unscathed after executives who received the call realized something was wrong, the people said.
The impersonation of Vigna’s voice is convincing – accurately imitating the southern Italian accent.
The Vigna Deepfaker began explaining that he was calling from a different mobile number because he needed to discuss something confidential — the deal would likely face some China-related hurdles and require an unspecified currency Hedging transactions.
The executive was shocked and became suspicious, people familiar with the matter said. He began to hear the slightest hint of robotic undertones, which only deepened his suspicions.
“Sorry, Benedetto, but I need to confirm your identity,” the executive said. He raised a question: the book Wigner had just recommended to him a few days earlier (The Ten Commandments of Complexity: Action, Learning, and Adaptation in a Changing World by Alberto Feliz de Toni). What is the title of the book?
After saying that, the call ended abruptly. Ferrari has launched an internal investigation, people familiar with the matter said. Representatives for the Maranello, Italy-based company declined to comment for this story.
booming trends
This is not the first attempt to impersonate a high-profile executive. In May, it was reported that Mark Read, chief executive of advertising giant WPP Plc, was also the target of an ultimately unsuccessful but equally elaborate deepfake scam that impersonated him in a Teams call.
“This year, we’ve seen an increase in criminals trying to use artificial intelligence for voice cloning,” Rachel Tobac, CEO of cybersecurity training company SocialProof Security, said in an interview.
While these generative AI tools can create convincing deepfake images, videos, and recordings, they are not convincing enough to lead to the widespread deception that many warn of.
However, some companies fall victim to scammers. Earlier this year, an unnamed multinational company lost HK$200 million (US$26 million) after scammers used deepfake technology to defraud its Hong Kong employees, the South China Morning Post reported in February. The scammer fabricated statements from the company’s chief financial officer and others during the video call to persuade the victim to transfer money.
Other companies, such as cybersecurity firm CyberArk, are already training their executives on how to spot being deceived by bots.
“It’s just a matter of time before these sophisticated deepfakes based on artificial intelligence are expected to become very accurate,” Stefano Zanero, a professor of cybersecurity at Italy’s Politecnico di Milano, said in a phone interview.
