Fake FBI Agents Are Re-Targeting Scam Victims — What's Active Today

Breaking: FBI updates warning on fake agents preying on scam victims

The FBI issued an updated public service announcement on July 20 warning that criminals are impersonating FBI agents and IC3 (the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center) on social media to re-victimize people who already lost money to a scam. The new warning, alert number I-072026-PSA, was published on July 20 and is an update to Alert Number I-04182025-PSA.

One scheme uses fraudulent FBI profiles and fake pages on social media sites, luring victims to cloned IC3 sites, where after a victim of a scam begins to realize they are being defrauded and says they'll report it to the FBI, another fake "Fed" contacts them on Facebook Messenger, offering to "help." A second version uses AI-generated videos on social media promoting what appears to be the FBI IC3 site, where visitors are given a reference number and told an agent will contact them — a contact that never leads to real recovery. This lines up directly with what AVASC has been seeing since mid-June: prior victims contacted by fake recovery firms and people impersonating the FBI/IC3 promising to recover lost funds for an upfront fee, with the real FBI reiterating it does not operate that way.

The takeaway: the FBI does not solicit fees to recover funds and does not conduct case business over Facebook Messenger or similar DMs. If you already reported a scam and someone messages you claiming to be a federal agent following up, treat it as a second scam attempt.

Toll-text and government-impersonation scams keep climbing

Fake "unpaid toll" texts remain one of the most active scam categories nationally. FTC data shows the FTC got more than 1 million reports about imposter scams in 2025 with losses up nearly 20% to $3.5 billion, and reports of government imposter scams were up 40%, thanks in part to messages about overdue tolls that spoof real toll collection programs like EZ-Pass, SunPass, FasTrak, and TxTag, threatening late fees or suspended registration. AVASC's own intake shows this wave still running through early July, with multiple state DOTs and courts issuing matching public warnings.

Separately, the FTC is currently warning about people impersonating FTC employees directly — a related but distinct con. Scammers are impersonating the FTC, and the agency stresses it will never threaten you, say you must transfer money to "protect it," or tell you to withdraw cash or buy gold and give it to someone — that's a scam. The agency also notes a real FTC employee won't text you their photo ID to "verify" their identity.

AI is scaling up romance-investment ("pig butchering") cons

Both AVASC's database and outside reporting point to the same trend: criminal networks are using AI to run many fake romantic relationships at once, each steering victims toward bogus crypto investment platforms. Blockchain analysis shows cryptocurrency addresses associated with pig butchering operations received over USD 9.3 billion in 2025, with the average victim losing USD 178,000 before the fraud was detected or reported. Targeting has also broadened — victims aged 30 to 49 now represent the largest cohort, often professionals with substantial savings who are targeted through LinkedIn, professional networks, and dating applications, not just older adults as in earlier waves.

AVASC is seeing the same signature: conversations that start platonically or romantically, build for weeks, then pivot to an "opportunity" on an unfamiliar trading app — with fabricated dashboard "gains" used to encourage larger deposits before withdrawals are blocked.