What happened
In July 2024 a Ferrari executive received WhatsApp messages and then a phone call from someone impersonating chief executive Benedetto Vigna, using a convincing AI clone of his voice. The caller described a confidential acquisition requiring a currency hedge transaction. The executive became suspicious of small artefacts in the voice and asked the caller to name the title of a book Vigna had recommended days earlier; the call ended immediately. Ferrari opened an internal investigation and did not comment publicly. Bloomberg first reported the incident.
How the deception worked
The approach started on WhatsApp from an unfamiliar number, with the mismatch explained away by the claim that the deal was so sensitive it required a separate line, a pretext that turns a red flag into evidence of importance. The escalation to a voice call added the strongest trust signal available, the chief executive's distinctive accent and manner discussing an unannounced acquisition. Confidentiality supplied the reason not to consult anyone, and a currency hedge gave a technical, plausible-sounding financial action. The executive interrupted the frame by asking a shared-knowledge question with no public answer, which the synthetic caller could not handle.
AI involvement · Confirmed AI-enabled
The caller used a synthetic voice that reproduced chief executive Benedetto Vigna's southern Italian accent; the target noticed slightly mechanical intonation.
The control that would have caught it· our reading, not a claim from the sources
A pre-agreed challenge based on shared private knowledge, or a codeword for executive payment requests, reliably breaks a voice clone that cannot improvise.
Sources (2)
- Ferrari narrowly dodges deepfake scam simulating deal-hungry CEOBloomberg via The Spokesman-Review·spokesman.comOpen ↗
- Ferrari CEO Deepfake Shows Growing Threat of AI Scams Impersonating ExecutivesBloomberg·bloomberg.comOpen ↗
This entry summarises public reporting. It is not a legal finding, and details can change as investigations conclude. Found an error? Send a correction.