Daily brief — August 24, 2026
Fake 'FBI' Recovery Scams Re-Target Fraud Victims This Week
A fresh federal warning this week shows scammers are posing as FBI/IC3 staff to squeeze a second payment out of people who already lost money — while toll-text scams and AI-run romance-investment cons keep churning.
Published August 24, 2026
Key points
- The FBI issued a fresh update this week warning that fake IC3/FBI "recovery agents" are charging prior scam victims a second time.
- IC3 states clearly it will never ask for payment to recover funds or refer victims to a paid recovery company.
- The FTC's August 3 alert calls fund-recovery scams targeting past victims especially harmful.
- Toll-agency smishing texts remain widespread; agencies advise contacting toll agencies only via numbers/sites you already know are real.
- AI-powered romance-investment ("pig butchering") scams remain active, with federal agencies renewing public warnings and cross-border enforcement continuing.
- AVASC's own incident data lines up closely with each of these federal warnings, suggesting these are current, active patterns — not isolated cases.
Breaking: Fake 'FBI' recovery agents are calling past victims again
The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) put out a fresh warning this week that criminals are posing as IC3 or FBI staff to reach people who've already been scammed, offering to "recover" their losses — for a fee. As one investigator put it, "They request money in order to recover money." The scheme is especially cruel because it targets people who have already been victimized once.
IC3's own update on this scheme is explicit: "IC3 will never ask for payment to recover lost funds, nor will IC3 refer someone to a company requesting payment for recovering funds." The bureau notes the con now often uses artificial intelligence (AI)-generated videos to create fictitious or misleading promotional materials and spoofed government-look-alike sites to harvest personal data. Separately, the FTC issued its own alert on August 3 calling this category "the worst of the absolute worst: scams that target people who have already lost money to a scam."
What AVASC is seeing: this matches a cluster we've tracked since mid-June — prior victims contacted by fake recovery firms and people impersonating the FBI/IC3, promising fund recovery for an upfront fee. The federal timing (a fresh FBI update this week, plus the August 3 FTC alert) confirms this is still very much live.
Toll-text smishing: still landing in inboxes nationwide
Fake "unpaid toll" texts remain one of the most common complaints we and regulators are seeing. The FTC's standing guidance is simple: "Did you get a text message demanding money for unpaid tolls? Reach out to the state's toll agency using a phone number or website you know is real." State transportation departments and courts have echoed this repeatedly this year.
What AVASC is seeing: our incident tracking shows this wave running from late May through early July, with mass texts about small unpaid-toll amounts linking to look-alike payment pages that harvest card and personal data — consistent with what state agencies nationwide continue to flag.
AI-run romance-investment ('pig butchering') scams keep evolving
Federal agencies just re-upped their annual warning campaign on this front: FinCEN, working with the CFTC, is reminding financial institutions to remain vigilant to potential relationship investment scams as part of the multiagency #DatingorDefrauding effort. Enforcement has also intensified — this year alone has produced coordinated international action against the criminal networks behind these operations.
What AVASC is seeing: our data shows syndicates using AI to run large numbers of simultaneous romance-and-investment conversations that funnel victims into fake crypto platforms, with per-victim losses frequently reaching five and six figures. Because these cons build trust slowly, they're rarely recognized by the person living through them — which is exactly why outside eyes and check-ins matter.
Protect yourself
- Never pay a fee, gift card, or crypto amount to anyone claiming they can 'recover' money you already lost — real agencies don't work that way.
- If someone contacts you claiming to be FBI/IC3, hang up or close the message and verify independently at ic3.gov — don't use links or numbers they gave you.
- Got a toll or fine text? Don't click the link. Go directly to your state toll agency's official site or a phone number you already know is legitimate.
- If you've been scammed before, tell a trusted person or advocate — shame and secrecy are exactly what re-targeting scams count on.
- Be cautious of any online relationship that steers you toward a specific investment app or crypto platform, especially if urgency or secrecy is involved.
- Report both the original scam and any follow-up 'recovery' contact to the FTC (reportfraud.ftc.gov) and FBI IC3 (ic3.gov).
Sources
- FBI warns scammers are impersonating its cybercrime complaint center — KCTV5 / InvestigateTV
- FBI Warns of Scammers Impersonating the IC3 (PSA update) — FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
- FTC Consumer Alerts Archive — August 2026 — Federal Trade Commission
- New trends in reports of imposter scams — Federal Trade Commission
- Dating or Defrauding 2026 — FinCEN (U.S. Department of the Treasury)
- FinCEN Reminds Financial Institutions to Remain Vigilant Regarding Potential Relationship Investment Scams — FinCEN (U.S. Department of the Treasury)
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