Fake 'FBI Recovery Agents' Are Re-Targeting Scam Victims

Fake 'FBI/IC3 recovery agents' are targeting people who already got scammed

The FBI issued an updated public service announcement on July 20, 2026, warning that criminals are impersonating IC3 personnel to re-target people who have already lost money to fraud, now using AI-generated video of officials and spoofed copies of the real IC3 website. Scammers are impersonating FBI personnel who supposedly handle Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) complaints, using that disguise to deceive and revictimize people who already lost money once. Reporting on the alert notes the FBI detailed tactics including AI-generated videos, spoofed websites, and direct outreach via email, phone, and social media, with scammers falsely claiming to have recovered lost funds or offering assistance in doing so, aiming to extract additional personal and financial information.

AVASC's own database shows this exact pattern surfacing in victim reports between June 13 and July 4 — people previously defrauded being approached by fake 'recovery' services or people posing as the FBI/IC3 and promising to get their money back for an upfront fee. That lines up with the FBI's core message: the IC3 will never ask for payment to recover funds, and will not refer victims to private companies for recovery services.

Toll-text smishing keeps flooding phones — still no sign of slowing

State transportation agencies and cybersecurity units continue flagging the fake 'unpaid toll' text wave that AVASC first logged in late May and last saw as recently as July 7. Analysts describe it as a sustained, coordinated campaign: the FTC highlighted that consumers reported losses amounting to $470 million in 2024 due to scams initiated via text messages, and SMiShing text messages for unpaid tolls were specifically identified as a top text scam category, with IC3 receiving 59,271 complaints related to toll scams in 2024 alone. Investigators say threat actors have significantly ratcheted up their campaigns over the past several months, and the campaigns are demonstrably nationwide, as threat actors impersonate a wide array of state-specific toll collection services.

The advice from tolling agencies and the FBI hasn't changed: check directly with their state's toll agency for an amount due, contact the toll agency's customer service and delete the smishing texts.

AI is scaling up romance-investment ('pig butchering') cons — and takedowns are scaling up too

AVASC has tracked AI-run romance-investment fraud rings since early June, and 2026 has brought both bigger scam operations and bigger law enforcement responses. Industry trackers note that a significant milestone was set in October 2025 with a $15 billion Bitcoin forfeiture from Cambodia's Prince Group, and the first four months of 2026 produced more enforcement action against pig-butchering than the entire preceding decade. On the fraud side, cryptocurrency-related fraud caused over $11 billion in losses in 2025, making crypto investment scams one of the largest sources of online financial crime, and reporting on newer cases shows criminal groups using automated tools to run large numbers of romantic conversations at once before steering targets into fake trading platforms.