Malicious actors using AI to pose as senior US officials, FBI says

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By AJ Vicens

DETROIT (Reuters) -Malicious actors are using text messages and AI-generated voice messages to impersonate senior U.S. officials in a scheme to gain access to the personal accounts of state and federal government officials, the FBI said on Thursday.

Access to targets’ accounts could be used to go after additional government officials or their associates and contacts, and could also be used to elicit information or funds, the FBI said in a public service announcement.

It did not immediately respond to a request for additional details on how many people had received messages as part of the campaign, or whether the activities are the work of financially motivated cybercriminals or state-aligned actors.

Many of the targeted officials are current or former senior U.S. federal or state government officials and their contacts, according to the announcement.

The messages are used to establish rapport with targets before sending them a link under the guise of moving the conversation to a separate messaging platform, according to the FBI. The separate platform is in some cases a hacker-controlled website that steals login credentials such as usernames and passwords. 

The FBI warned in a December 2024 public service announcement that criminals were using artificial intelligence to generate text, images, audio and video to facilitate crimes such as fraud and extortion.

(Reporting by AJ Vicens in Detroit; Editing by Joe Bavier)