FBI Warns of AI-Powered Recovery Scams Targeting Past Victims

Breaking: FBI updates warning on fake “recovery” agents targeting past victims

On July 20, 2026, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) issued an updated public service announcement describing scammers who impersonate FBI and IC3 personnel to re-target people who have already lost money to fraud. This scheme combines several exploitation tactics to include the targeting of previous victims, the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated videos to create fictitious or misleading promotional materials, and the creation of spoofed websites to gather personal information.

The real IC3 does not have social media accounts, does not communicate with victims through messaging apps, and never charges fees to recover stolen money. The FBI notes that "almost all complainants indicated the scammers claimed to have recovered the victim's lost funds or offered to assist in recovering funds." This lines up exactly with what AVASC has been seeing since mid-June: prior victims contacted by fake recovery firms and people impersonating the FBI/IC3 promising fund recovery for an upfront fee.

For anyone who's already reported a scam and gets a follow-up message offering "help" or claiming funds were found — that outreach is not from the real FBI. Report suspected incidents only through the legitimate IC3 site at www.ic3.gov, and victims aged 60 and older needing filing assistance can call the Department of Justice Elder Justice Hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11.

Still active: nationwide toll-payment text scam

Fake "unpaid toll" texts continue to circulate across multiple states, matching AVASC's own tracking of this wave since late May. The FCC has received consumer complaints about imposters sending fraudulent text messages claiming to be from legitimate toll payment companies like E-ZPass, FasTrak, and I-PASS, saying the recipient has an unpaid toll and that the sender's number may be spoofed to look like it's from a toll company.

State officials keep flagging the same tells. A fake toll text is often unsolicited, sent from an unusually long phone number, and includes a link that is likely shortened or scrambled. Real tolling agencies generally do not send text messages to non-accountholders and do not request payment by text with a link to a website.

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

AVASC's data shows syndicates using AI to run mass romance-investment cons, and outside research confirms the trend is accelerating. In the past, scammers manually managed dozens of conversations at once; in 2026, criminal syndicates now use agentic AI to automate the grooming process, maintaining thousands of deep, personalized relationships simultaneously.

The financial scale is significant: 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. According to the FBI's IC3, cryptocurrency-related fraud caused over $11 billion in losses in 2025, making crypto investment scams one of the largest sources of online financial crime.

The reliable rule for the public: if your introduction to a crypto "opportunity" came through a romance or friendship that started in your messages, treat it as a scam until proven otherwise.