The FBI has issued a public service announcement warning about an advanced scam campaign that uses deepfake videos of senior FBI officials and sophisticated spoofed websites to defraud individuals, particularly those who have previously been victims of fraud. This new warning, released by the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) on July 20, 2026, indicates a significant escalation from a similar scheme first reported in April 2025.
The current campaign is described as materially more refined, moving beyond simple text-based recovery pitches to mimic official government processes comprehensively. Scammers are combining social media impersonation, generative AI video technology, and highly convincing lookalike complaint portals to create a coordinated attack.
In one observed variant, a fraud victim who had mentioned filing an IC3 complaint was contacted via Facebook Messenger by someone impersonating an FBI agent. This imposter provided a link, ostensibly to update the victim's report. The link either contained malicious code designed to compromise the user's system or was used to harvest additional financial details.
A key element of this escalated campaign involves the use of AI-generated videos of a senior FBI leader hosted on social media platforms. These deepfake videos encourage users to file complaints on a fraudulent IC3 website. The fake portal closely mimics the legitimate ic3.gov site but simplifies the complaint process to a single form requesting basic information such as name, phone number, email, the type of scam, and an estimated financial loss. After submission, the site issues a reference number and promises follow-up, at which point the operators collect further personal data.
Experts note that messages appearing to originate from the FBI carry substantial weight in a phishing context, potentially leading victims to bypass standard verification procedures and share sensitive information like credentials, financial records, or internal details. This tactic mirrors deepfake trading-platform scams documented in May 2025, which also leveraged AI-generated videos of public figures to direct victims to fraudulent sites.
The FBI also confirmed that AI video is being used in live calls to impersonate executives or officials. To help users identify these deepfakes, the Bureau advises looking for visual anomalies such as distorted hands, unrealistic accessories, inaccurate shadows, and noticeable lag in voice calls.
The IC3 explicitly states that it does not maintain a social media presence, does not communicate through platforms like Facebook or Telegram, does not use phone calls or public forums for official communication, and never requests payment for the recovery of lost funds. The FBI strongly urges individuals to directly type "ic3.gov" into their browser's address bar, to avoid clicking on sponsored search results, and to always verify that any IC3 URL ends with a ".gov" domain to ensure authenticity.
