AI scammers are now impersonating US government bigwigs, says FBI
15 Maio 2025 - 11:03PM
Cointelegraph


Deepfake-assisted hackers are now targeting US federal and state
officials by masquerading as senior US officials in the latest
brazen phishing campaign to steal sensitive data.
The bad actors have been operating since April, using
deepfake voice
messages and text messages to masquerade as senior government
officials and establish rapport with victims, the FBI
said in a May 15 warning.
“If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US
official, do not assume it is authentic,” the agency
said.
If US officials’ accounts are compromised, the scam could become
far worse because hackers can then “target other government
officials, or their associates and contacts, by using the trusted
contact information they obtain,” the FBI said.
As part of these scams, the FBI says the hackers are trying to
access victims’ accounts through malicious links and directing them
to hacker-controlled
platforms or websites that steal sensitive data like
passwords.
Source: FBI
“Contact information acquired through social engineering schemes
could also be used to impersonate contacts to elicit information or
funds,” the agency added.
Crypto founders targeted in separate deepfake
attacks
In an unrelated deepfake scam, Sandeep Narwal, co-founder of
blockchain platform Polygon, raised the alarm
in a May 13 X post that bad actors were also impersonating him with
deepfakes.
Nailwal said the “attack vector is horrifying” and had left him
slightly shaken because several people had “called me on Telegram
asking if I was on zoom call with them and am I asking them to
install a script.”
Source: Sandeep
Narwal
As part of the scam, the bad actors hacked the Telegram of
Polygon’s ventures lead, Shreyansh and pinged people asking to jump
in a Zoom call that had a deepfake of
Nailwal, Shreyansh and a third person, according to
Nailwal.
“The audio is disabled and since your voice is not working, the
scammer asks you to install some SDK, if you install game over for
you,” Nailwal said.
“Other issue is, there is no way to complain this to Telegram
and get their attention on this matter. I understand they can’t
possibly take all these service calls but there should be a way to
do it, maybe some sort of social way to call out a particular
account.”
At least one user replied in the comments
saying the fraudsters had targeted them, while Web3 OG Dovey Wan
said she had also been
deepfaked in a similar scam.
Source: Dovey Wan
FBI and crypto founder says vigilance is key to avoid
scams
Nailwal suggests the best way to avoid being duped by these
types of scams is to never install anything during an online
interaction initiated by another person and to keep a separate
device specifically for accessing crypto
wallets.
Related: AI
deepfake attacks will extend beyond videos and audio — Security
firms
Meanwhile, the FBI says to verify the identity of anyone who
contacts you, examine all sender addresses for mistakes or
inconsistencies, and check all images
and videos for distorted hands, feet or unrealistic facial
features.
At the same time, the agency recommends never sharing sensitive
information with someone you have never met, clicking links from
people you don’t know, and setting up two-factor or multifactor
authentication.
Magazine: Deepfake AI ‘gang’ drains $11M OKX account,
Zipmex zapped by SEC: Asia Express
...
Continue reading AI scammers are now impersonating
US government bigwigs, says FBI
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AI scammers are now impersonating US government
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