FBI Warns of Fake Agents Targeting Scam Victims Again

FBI: Fake "IC3 agents" are re-targeting scam victims

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) issued an update warning that criminals are impersonating IC3 and FBI personnel — including with AI-generated video — to prey on people who have already lost money to a scam. According to the IC3, the bureau updated an earlier warning about scammers impersonating the agency online, saying fraudsters continue to use the scheme "to deceive and revictimize individuals." The agency described two tactics: two different schemes being used to target cybercrime victims, both directly and by soliciting them to report incidents — scammers create fraudulent social media profiles and pages impersonating FBI personnel or IC3, and may infiltrate online groups for fraud victims or contact victims directly.

The bureau is blunt about what's fake: "Any social media profiles or pages claiming to represent IC3 or offering to recover lost money are fraudulent and are actively attempting to steal your personal or financial information." Nearly every complaint follows the same script — complainants report scammers use a variety of methods to initiate contact, and almost all indicated the scammers claimed to have recovered the victim's lost funds or offered to assist in recovering funds, even when AI-generated videos make the impersonation look convincing.

This tracks directly with what AVASC is seeing: our database shows prior victims being re-contacted by fake recovery services and people posing as the FBI/IC3, promising fund recovery for an upfront fee — the same con the FBI is now flagging as active and evolving.

Toll-text phishing and government-impersonation calls keep spreading

State transportation agencies continue sounding alarms on fake unpaid-toll texts. Pennsylvania officials warned this year that text phishing scams currently targeting Pennsylvanians threaten the suspension of driving and vehicle registration privileges for not paying a fine or toll violation, and stressed that PennDOT does not send text messages to customers for any reason, and uses traditional mail sent via the U.S. Postal Service to communicate with Pennsylvanians. Iowa's DOT similarly reported fraudulent text messages and phone calls appearing to come from the Iowa DOT or "DMV" targeting recipients with false claims of unpaid traffic violations, including fraudulent texts stating recipients have an unpaid toll or registration fee.

Meanwhile, broader imposter scams — the category covering fake IRS, Social Security, and law-enforcement callers — remain the FTC's single largest complaint type. The agency's own testimony notes it received more than 1 million reports about imposter scams, with consumers reporting more than $3.5 billion in losses last year. AVASC's incident data shows the identical pattern: callers posing as government agencies demanding immediate gift-card, wire, or crypto payment under threat of arrest — the same coercive playbook driving the toll-text and recovery-scam waves.

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

Reporting this year describes criminal networks using automation to run scam operations at unprecedented scale. One analysis notes that where scammers once manually managed dozens of conversations at once, in 2026 criminal syndicates now use agentic AI to automate the grooming process, with AI agents able to maintain thousands of deep, personalized relationships simultaneously. The endgame is consistent: victims are guided into fake trading platforms, and once trust is established, the scammer introduces an "exclusive" crypto trading platform — these sites are not legitimate exchanges but "mirror dashboards" that look and function like a real trading interface.

This mirrors what AVASC is tracking: reports describing AI-run romance-investment cons that funnel victims into fake crypto platforms, with losses per victim frequently reaching five and six figures — consistent with industry estimates that these AI-assisted operations are far more profitable per case than traditional scams.