The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a critical warning about a rising threat involving artificial intelligence (AI) to impersonate senior United States government officials through highly convincing voice messages and text communications.
These AI-generated interactions are targeting current and former officials, as well as their associates, with the objective of gaining unauthorised access to sensitive accounts and extracting valuable information.
The FBI’s recent advisory highlights that cybercriminals are using sophisticated AI technology to produce voice messages that closely mimic the speech patterns and intonations of high-ranking officials. This technique, known as “vishing” (voice phishing), is often combined with “smishing” (SMS phishing), where fraudulent text messages are sent to potential victims. These tactics are designed to build trust and increase the likelihood that recipients will engage and ultimately fall victim to the scam.
“If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic,” the FBI stated.
Typically, these fraudsters initiate contact by sending messages urging recipients to move conversations to alternative messaging platforms, often accompanied by malicious links. When targets click these links, their devices or accounts become compromised.
Gaining control over personal or official government accounts allows the attackers to harvest contact lists, confidential data, or financial information. This access facilitates further attacks, where criminals impersonate trusted contacts to solicit additional information or funds.
“Contact information acquired through social engineering schemes could also be used to impersonate contacts to elicit information or funds,” the FBI added.
Although the FBI has not revealed the specific officials impersonated, it confirmed that many targets are senior federal or state government figures and their networks. Details about the geographic scope or origins of the scam remain undisclosed, but the alert shows the increasing sophistication of AI-assisted cyber threats.
These technologies can produce highly convincing synthetic text, audio, images, and video, which are used to manipulate victims into transferring money, disclosing confidential information, or succumbing to blackmail, including sextortion.
Data from the FBI in 2024 identifies phishing, extortion, and breaches of personal data as the most common cybercrimes. Older adults are particularly vulnerable, having suffered financial losses approaching $5 billion.
To protect against these AI-driven impersonation scams, experts advise verifying the identity of any unexpected sender through official channels before responding, avoiding clicking on unknown links or downloading unsolicited attachments, enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all accounts, and ensuring ongoing awareness and training on recognising social engineering attacks.
For more information and updates, individuals should consult official FBI resources and cybersecurity advisories.