Prior Victims Retargeted as Toll Texts, AI Romance Scams Surge

Imposter and 'Recovery' Scams Are Circling Back to Prior Victims

The FBI has renewed its warning about a scheme in which criminals pose as Bureau personnel to "deceive and revictimize" people who already filed a fraud complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Separately reported guidance says in July 2026, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center warned that scammers are using AI-generated deepfake videos of officials and spoofed government look-alike websites to re-victimize people who already filed fraud complaints. AVASC is seeing the same pattern in our own case data: people who reported an initial scam are being contacted again — often by callers or emails claiming they can 'recover' the lost funds for an upfront fee.

This sits inside a much larger picture. New data from the Federal Trade Commission reveal that people reported losing a staggering $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, with reported losses increasing nearly three times since 2020. FTC data also show that people reported imposter scams more than any other fraud category in 2025—nearly one in three fraud reports were about imposter scams. The FBI does not call victims offering paid fund recovery, and no legitimate refund or recovery process ever asks for payment first.

Text-Based Cons Keep Flooding Phones: Toll 'Bills' and Fake Job Offers

The nationwide unpaid-toll smishing wave AVASC has been tracking remains fully active. A mass smishing campaign uncovered by Bitdefender Labs shows scammers sending tens of thousands of fraudulent text messages to mobile users across 12 countries, impersonating transport authorities, toll operators, and parking services. State attorneys general continue issuing fresh alerts as the wording shifts region to region; Michigan's AG reminds residents that government agencies will never demand money through email, over the phone, or text, and advises people to report suspicious texts by forwarding them to SPAM (7726) and by sending the texts to the Federal Trade Commission.

Parallel to that, task-based 'job' scams — the pattern AVASC flagged this period, where small payouts precede a demand that workers deposit their own money to 'unlock' earnings — remain a top FTC concern. Scammers might send online tasks (like giving positive ratings or reviews) to earn money, but eventually they'll ask you to deposit your own money. Losses keep climbing: the FTC saw a 400% increase in task scams in 2024, and median losses in BBB Scam Tracker data are significantly higher for task scams as well, hitting $2,300 in 2025.

AI Is Supercharging Romance-Investment ('Pig Butchering') Scams

AVASC's data mirrors what federal crime statistics are showing: romance-investment fraud, often called 'pig butchering,' is being run at industrial scale with AI assistance. According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, cryptocurrency-related fraud caused over $11 billion in losses in 2025, making crypto investment scams one of the largest sources of online financial crime. Reported losses from AI-assisted scams accounted for almost $893 million. Older adults are far from the only targets: AARP's 2026 study found almost one out of every 10 adults over 50 said they had been asked to send money or get involved in cryptocurrency investments via online romance. AVASC continues to see per-victim losses reaching five and six figures, consistent with this reporting.