Two Federal Agencies Warn: Scammers Are Impersonating the Investigators

Federal agencies warn: fraudsters are posing as their own investigators

The FTC issued a warning this month that scammers are impersonating its own employees by phone and text. According to the agency, callers spoof the real FTC phone number and use convincing tactics such as referencing real FTC employees and sending pictures of FTC badges to deceive victims, then convince people to empty their bank accounts under the guise of protecting their funds. The FTC states plainly that it will never threaten you, say you must transfer money to "protect it," or tell you to withdraw cash or buy gold and give it to someone.

Separately, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) issued an updated public service announcement on July 20 warning that criminals are impersonating FBI personnel and IC3 itself to re-target people who already lost money in a prior scam. The bureau says almost all complainants indicated the scammers claimed to have recovered the victim's lost funds or offered to assist in recovering funds, using fraudulent websites designed to closely mimic the official IC3 portal, AI-generated video, and fake social media profiles. IC3 stresses it will never ask for payment to recover lost funds, nor will it refer someone to a company requesting payment for recovering funds. This matches what AVASC has been seeing since mid-June: prior scam victims contacted by fake recovery firms and people impersonating the FBI or IC3 promising fund recovery for an upfront fee.

Unpaid-toll text scam still flooding phones nationwide

The nationwide wave of fake unpaid-toll text messages that AVASC has tracked since late May is still active. State cybersecurity researchers describe the campaigns as demonstrably nationwide, as threat actors impersonate a wide array of state-specific toll collection services, and note that SMiShing text messages for unpaid tolls were specifically identified as a top text scam category by the FTC. The FTC's own consumer guidance this year tells anyone who gets one of these texts to reach out to the state's toll agency using a phone number or website you know is real — not the one in the text.

What we're seeing: AI is supercharging romance-investment ("pig butchering") cons

AVASC's data shows a ring using AI to run mass romance-investment scams that funnel victims into fake crypto platforms, with losses per victim frequently reaching five and six figures — and outside reporting backs this up. Industry analysis this month describes romance scams shifting into sophisticated, AI- and cryptocurrency-driven campaigns, citing FBI IC3 figures that cryptocurrency-related fraud caused over $11 billion in losses in 2025, with reported losses from AI-assisted scams accounting for almost $893 million. Separate fraud-intelligence reporting notes that cryptocurrency addresses linked to these operations received over $9.3 billion in 2025, with the average victim losing $178,000 before the fraud was detected or reported, and that professionals aged 30–49 are now the largest victim group, often reached through LinkedIn, professional networks, and dating apps.