A multi-million-euro scam targeting a US health clinic was prevented at the last minute in Greece over the recent when the country’s anti-money laundering authority froze a bank transfer using AI software.
According to media reports on Thursday, an individual identified only as a “European citizen” first established a business entity in the northern city of Thessaloniki and then managed to trick the head of the American clinic’s accounting office into transferring 4.5 million euros from the United States to an account opened in a Greece-based bank.
The deception, in this case, also employed an AI program to make a caller’s voice resemble that of the CEO of the US clinic, which initially fooled the accounting department, and the sum of money was transferred.
The FBI was notified when the clinic suspected a scam, with an international notice sent to authorities and regulators around the world, including to Greek authorities.
Auspiciously, the Greek tax bureau’s anti-money laundering unit located the money in a sole proprietorship business set up in Thessaloniki belonging to a foreign national – with the sum frozen.
No information was provided on whether an arrest was made, or details about the hoodwinked clinic.
