FBI warns scammers are using AI deepfakes to re-scam fraud victims

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center warned on July 20 that scammers are using AI-generated deepfake videos of senior FBI officials and spoofed versions of the IC3 website to re-target people who have already lost money to fraud.

The warning, published as an update to an earlier April 2025 alert, describes a scheme in which criminals pose as FBI or IC3 personnel and offer to help victims recover stolen funds. The bureau says the offer is itself a second scam, designed to extract more money or personal information from people already victimized once.

How the scheme works

According to the PSA, scammers monitor social media groups and forums where fraud victims discuss their cases, then approach them directly by email, phone call, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, or through social media ads.

In one case cited in the PSA, a victim who mentioned filing an IC3 complaint was contacted on Facebook Messenger by someone posing as an FBI agent and sent a link to “update” the complaint. The link either carried malicious code or led to a form harvesting financial details.

The bureau said the scheme has grown more sophisticated since its 2025 warning. Scammers have circulated AI-generated video of a senior FBI official directing viewers to file complaints through a fake IC3 site.

The spoofed page copies the look of the real ic3.gov but strips the process down to a single form asking for a name, phone number, email address, scam type, and estimated loss, then returns a fabricated reference number.

“IC3 does not maintain a social media presence. IC3 will never ask for payment to recover lost funds,” the FBI said in the July 20 PSA (ic3.gov/PSA/2026/PSA260720).

Older victims hit hardest

The FBI’s data shows the financial toll of these schemes falls disproportionately on older adults. Victims aged 60 and older reported the highest internet-crime losses nationally in 2025, exceeding $7.7 billion, according to the bureau’s figures.

The Federal Trade Commission has separately warned that recovery-scam operators often buy or trade lists of prior fraud victims, complete with names, contact details, and information about the original scam, before pitching bogus recovery services.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued similar warnings specific to cryptocurrency and forex fraud victims, noting that a follow-up offer to retrieve lost funds can compound the original loss rather than reverse it.

What the FBI recommends

The bureau is urging anyone contacted about “recovering” prior losses to treat the approach as a scam. It recommends checking for mismatched email addresses, phone numbers, and URLs, and watching for signs of AI-generated video such as unnatural facial movement or audio that doesn’t sync with speech.

Suspected incidents should be reported only through the official portal at ic3.gov, not through links sent by the person making contact. Victims aged 60 and older can also get filing help through the Department of Justice’s Elder Justice Hotline at 1-833-372-8311.