This Week in Scams: Fake 'Recovery' Calls, Toll Texts, AI Romance Cons

Revictimization Alert: Fake 'Fund Recovery' Scams Impersonating the FBI and IC3

The FBI issued a public alert this summer describing a fast-escalating scheme in which criminals impersonate the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and FBI personnel to target people who have already lost money to fraud. Released on July 20, 2026, the alert highlights a significant escalation in recovery scam tactics, where cybercriminals exploit individuals who have already suffered financial losses by falsely promising to recover stolen funds. Victims are often contacted via email, phone calls, or social media after indicating they intend to report prior fraud, and threat actors then pose as law enforcement officials and claim they can assist in recovering lost funds, creating a false sense of legitimacy and urgency.

A key part of the scheme involves fake websites: fraudulent websites designed to closely mimic the official IC3 portal replicate the branding and layout of the legitimate www.ic3.gov platform, and after a victim submits a fake complaint form, the submitted data is harvested for further exploitation, identity theft, or additional financial fraud. The FBI has been direct about what the real IC3 will never do: IC3 will never ask for payment to recover lost funds, nor will IC3 refer someone to a company requesting payment for recovering funds.

AVASC's own case data this period shows this exact pattern reaching our community: prior scam victims being contacted by fake recovery firms and people impersonating the FBI/IC3, promising to recover lost funds for an upfront fee. If this describes an experience you've had, please know it is not a reflection on you — scammers specifically target people who have already been victimized because they know the emotional pull of 'getting your money back' is powerful.

Toll-Text Smishing Keeps Flooding Phones Nationwide

The fake unpaid-toll text wave that has been building for months shows no sign of slowing. The FTC confirmed in May 2026 that fake toll payment texts are now the fastest-growing form of government imposter fraud in the country, contributing to a 40% spike in reports and pushing total imposter scam losses to $3.5 billion in 2025. These texts typically claim drivers owe small balances like $3.95 or $7.40 and threaten late fees, suspended registrations, or legal action if payment is not made immediately — a deliberately small amount designed to make paying feel easier than arguing.

The FTC's advice remains consistent: don't click on any links in, or respond to, unexpected texts, and instead reach out to the state's tolling agency using a phone number or website you know is real rather than any contact information in the text. This matches what AVASC is tracking: mass text campaigns impersonating toll agencies with look-alike payment pages, prompting public warnings from multiple state DOTs and courts.

AI-Powered Romance-Investment ('Pig-Butchering') Scams Escalate

Reporting this year continues to show criminal networks using generative and agentic AI to scale romance-investment fraud, commonly called "pig-butchering." Scammers deploy AI-enhanced personas across dating apps, LinkedIn, or encrypted messaging platforms, building trust over weeks or months before introducing a fake crypto trading platform. The financial impact is striking: AI-enabled scams generated 4.5 times more revenue per operation than traditional scams, and the average scam payment rose to $2,764 in 2025, up from $782 the previous year — a 253% increase. Separately, cryptocurrency-related fraud caused over $11 billion in losses in 2025, according to the FBI's IC3.

This mirrors what AVASC's database is picking up: pig-butchering rings reportedly using agentic AI to maintain thousands of simultaneous romance-investment conversations at once, funneling victims into fake crypto platforms, with losses per victim often reaching five and six figures. On the enforcement side, there has been real progress — a broad international operation led by Dubai Police, working with the FBI and China's Ministry of Public Security, resulted in at least 276 arrests and the freezing of more than $701 million in crypto linked to money laundering.

The clearest warning sign remains the same regardless of how convincing the technology gets: if a crypto "opportunity" arrived through a romantic or friendly connection that began in your messages, treat it as suspect, and never pay extra fees or "taxes" to unlock a withdrawal.

Task-Based Job Scams: 'Pay to Get Paid'

Gamified "task" job scams — where people are recruited to rate products or click "like" on listings — remain a major and growing category. As the FTC describes it, task scams usually start with an unexpected text offering work, victims are paid a little to build trust, and then the scammer tells them to deposit their own money, usually in crypto, to unlock the next set of tasks or withdraw earnings that never materialize. Even making that deposit won't release the promised earnings — and the real money deposited is gone for good.

AVASC is seeing this pattern clearly in our own reports this period: fake remote 'task' jobs that pay small amounts before engineering a negative balance, then demanding the worker deposit their own funds to withdraw earnings that never arrive. The FTC's core guidance applies here without exception: never pay anyone to get paid, or to get a job — that's a sure sign of a scam.

Government Impersonation Stays the Most-Reported Scam Category

Across federal data, impersonation of government agencies continues to top the charts. The IC3's 2025 annual report documented more than 1 million complaints with reported losses exceeding $20.877 billion, a 26% increase from the prior year, and older adults continue to suffer the heaviest financial impact from internet crimes, with victims aged 60 and older reporting the highest losses nationally, exceeding $7.7 billion in 2025.

This lines up with what AVASC's database shows this period: callers posing as the IRS, Social Security Administration, FTC, or police, threatening arrest or frozen accounts and demanding immediate payment via gift card, wire, or cryptocurrency. No legitimate government agency will ever demand payment this way — that single fact is one of the most reliable red flags available to the public.

Lessons From Event-Ticket Scams

Earlier this year's FIFA World Cup illustrated how fraudsters exploit high-demand events, and the pattern is a useful reminder ahead of any future major concert, sports, or travel event. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center warned that cybercriminals were spoofing FIFA websites before the 2026 World Cup, and the FBI ultimately identified at least 36 fraudulent domains spoofing legitimate FIFA websites, many advertising fake tickets, merchandise, and travel packages while harvesting personal and financial data. The FTC separately issued a formal consumer alert warning fans to purchase only through official channels.

AVASC's data reflects the same playbook around major events generally: fraudsters spoof official ticket sellers and post fake resale listings, collecting peer-to-peer payments for tickets that never arrive. The lesson carries forward to any upcoming high-demand event — verify sellers independently and be wary of any offer that requires you to move fast or pay outside a protected platform.