Case fbi-ai-voice-us-officialsAI phishingMay 15, 2025United States

FBI warns AI-voice vishing campaign impersonates senior US officials to hijack accounts

FBI PSA I-051525 said that since April 2025 actors have sent smishing texts and AI-generated voice messages posing as senior US officials to build rapport, push malicious links and take over accounts.

HighAttack using AIStatus: OngoingVerified case file

Open in the interactive map Cite this case

Reported: May 15, 2025
Location: United States
Target: Senior US federal and state officials and their contacts
Severity: High
Triggered by: Unknown
Actor type: Unknown
Reported loss: None reported
CVE: None

What happened

Impact: Compromised accounts were used to reach further officials and solicit information or money; number of victims not disclosed.

Who triggered it

Actor: Unknown

Attribution: FBI did not attribute the campaign to a criminal or state group.

Motive: Account takeover, information theft and fraud against officials' networks

How it happened

Attack vector: Text messages and AI-cloned voice messages suggesting a move to another messaging platform via a malicious link

Root cause: Cheap voice cloning plus public availability of officials' voices and contact graphs

Timeline

Apr 1, 2025Campaign activity against officials begins, per FBI
May 15, 2025FBI issues public service announcement
Jul 8, 2025State Department cable reports AI-voice impersonation of Secretary Rubio on Signal

Response

FBI advised independent verification, MFA, family code words and reporting to IC3.

Current status: Ongoing

Sources (open in a new tab)

FBI IC3 PSA ic3.gov
BleepingComputer bleepingcomputer.com

Cite this case

FBI warns AI-voice vishing campaign impersonates senior US officials to hijack accounts. AI Threat Watch, case fbi-ai-voice-us-officials, May 15, 2025. https://aithreat.io/cases/fbi-ai-voice-us-officials/

Permanent link: https://aithreat.io/cases/fbi-ai-voice-us-officials/