FBI Reports Ongoing Vishing and Smishing Campaign Allegedly Targeting Government Officials Using Purportedly AI-Generated Voices
According to a May 15, 2025 public alert from the FBI and IC3, malicious actors have been using purported AI-generated voice messages and smishing tactics since April 2025 to impersonate senior U.S. officials. The campaign reportedly targets government personnel and their contacts to gain access to personal or official accounts. The FBI warns the scheme may involve credential theft and social engineering, with AI voice cloning used to increase believability.
- Date it happened
- 2025-05-15
- Organisation involved
- Scammers
- Product, system or model
- Vishing infrastructure, Smishing infrastructure, Mobile messaging networks, Account authentication systems, Deepfake technology, Synthetic audio generation technology
This incident was imported from AI Incident Database and is used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.
This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.