FBI Alerts Public to Malicious Campaign Impersonating US Government Officials

Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a warning about an ongoing malicious messaging campaign targeting current and former senior US government officials and their contacts.

Since April 2025, threat actors have been impersonating high-ranking US officials through text messages and AI-generated voice calls in an effort to gain access to personal accounts and potentially sensitive information.

The FBI advises individuals to verify the identity of anyone claiming to be a government official before engaging with unexpected communications.

The FBI has identified a sophisticated social engineering operation employing both “smishing” (SMS phishing) and “vishing” (voice phishing) tactics to target government officials.

Malicious actors send text messages or AI-generated voice communications claiming to be from senior US officials to establish rapport with targets.

Once trust is established, they attempt to transition communications to separate messaging platforms by sending malicious links.

According to the FBI, “Access to personal or official accounts operated by US officials could be used to target other government officials, or their associates and contacts, by using trusted contact information they obtain.”

The technical sophistication of these attacks has increased significantly with the use of AI-generated voice technology that can closely mimic known individuals.

Threat actors are exploiting advances in voice cloning technology to increase the credibility of their impersonation attempts, making traditional verification methods increasingly challenging.

Smishing and Vishing Schemes Work

The technical mechanics of these attacks follow established social engineering patterns but with enhanced technological capabilities.

Perpetrators typically use software to generate phone numbers that cannot be traced to specific devices or subscribers.

For text-based attacks, they masquerade as associates or family members, while vishing attacks increasingly leverage AI-generated audio to impersonate well-known public figures or personal relations.

These initial communications serve as a gateway to deliver malware or direct targets to actor-controlled websites designed to steal login credentials.

The FBI notes that these techniques mirror traditional spear phishing attacks, which have historically used email as the primary attack vector, but now exploit the perceived trust associated with direct messaging and voice communications.

Recommendations and Reporting

The FBI recommends several technical countermeasures to protect against these sophisticated impersonation attempts.

Users should implement two-factor authentication on all accounts and never disable this feature.

The Bureau specifically warns against providing authentication codes to anyone via messaging applications, as threat actors often use social engineering to acquire these codes.

Technical verification of communication authenticity is also advised.

“Look for subtle imperfections in images and videos, such as distorted hands or feet, unrealistic facial features, indistinct or irregular faces, inaccurate shadows, watermarks, voice call lag time, voice matching, and unnatural movements,” the FBI recommends.

For additional protection, users should create verification phrases with family members to confirm identities and never click links or download applications at the request of unverified contacts.

Anyone who believes they’ve been targeted should contact relevant security officials and report the incident to their local FBI Field Office or the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), including as much detailed information as possible about the suspicious communications.

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