FBI Warns of Deepfake 'Recovery' Scams Hitting Past Victims Again

Breaking: Fake 'FBI agents' using AI deepfakes to re-victimize fraud survivors

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center issued an updated public alert this summer describing an evolving scheme in which criminals impersonate IC3 and FBI personnel to target people who have already been defrauded once. This scheme combines several exploitation tactics including the targeting of previous victims, the use of AI-generated videos to create fictitious or misleading promotional materials, and the creation of spoofed websites to gather personal information entered by a user into the site.

The FBI is explicit that this is not how real recovery assistance works: IC3 does not have social media accounts, does not communicate with victims through messaging apps, and never charges fees to recover stolen money. Scammers contact victims through multiple channels, including phone calls, emails, instant messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and Telegram, social media ads and online forums.

This lines up closely with what AVASC's own case data has flagged this period: fake fund-recovery services and people posing as the FBI/IC3 are actively re-targeting prior scam victims with upfront-fee 'recovery' offers — exactly the pattern federal investigators are now confirming at national scale.

Still active: nationwide toll-text scam wave

Fake unpaid-toll text messages continue hitting phones across the country, including a state notice as recently as this week. Utah's transportation department confirmed Utahns are receiving text messages asking for personal information and money for a toll service, and this is part of a nation-wide scam.

New Jersey's cybersecurity center has tracked the campaign's tactics evolving in real time: victims receive text messages impersonating state toll agencies, motor vehicle agencies, and court systems, claiming they owe unpaid road tolls and directing them to click a link to pay immediately, often threatening fines, legal action, or suspension of driving privileges. Michigan's Attorney General also flagged a newer twist using a fake court-hearing notice: scam messages have included an image claiming to be a 'Notice of Civil Infraction Hearing' that falsely warns recipients must appear in person or pay a penalty.

This matches AVASC's own tracking of mass smishing campaigns impersonating toll agencies with look-alike payment pages harvesting card and personal data.

The bigger pattern: AI is supercharging investment/romance cons and job scams

Federal data show why AI-driven 'pig-butchering' romance-investment fraud remains a top-dollar threat: 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 the IC3's 2025 annual report recorded $8.6 billion in investment-fraud losses, with cryptocurrency investment fraud accounting for $7.2 billion of that total. This tracks with AVASC's own cluster on AI-run romance-investment cons funneling victims into fake crypto platforms.

Meanwhile, task-based 'job' scams remain a growing entry point: the FTC's own consumer guidance warns that scammers might send online tasks like giving positive ratings or reviews to earn money, but eventually ask victims to deposit their own money — that's a task scam. Job-scam losses overall have climbed sharply, with FTC-reported job scam losses skyrocketing from $90 million to $501 million as incidents nearly tripled between 2020 and 2024. This mirrors what AVASC is seeing in fake remote 'task' jobs that pay small amounts before demanding victims deposit their own funds.