Today, the San Francisco division of the FBI warned the public to be aware of the increasingly AI-generated voice scams. Cybercriminals reportedly use AI tools for phishing attacks and voice cloning scams.
The FBI warned against using voice deepfakes to target U.S. officials at the RSA cybersecurity conference at the Moscone Centre in San Francisco. According to the agency, the warning aims to provide mitigation measures to help the public spot and block attacks using voice deepfakes.
AI is helping criminals carry out cybercrimes
Bad actors have impersonated senior US officials to target individuals, many current or former government officials. A statement from the FBI cautioned the public not to assume messages that claim to be from a senior US official are authentic.
Since April malicious actors have been using AI to impersonate senior US officials as part of a campaign targeting current or former senior US government officials. FBI statement: 'If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic.' pic.twitter.com/qNfqDeWopg
— Andrew Curran (@AndrewCurran_) May 15, 2025
FBI clarified that malicious actors used smishing and vishing techniques to send messages and an AI-generated voice. The impersonators, disguised as senior US officials, tried to create a good relationship with the victims before gaining valuable personal information. According to the statement, the malicious actors accessed U.S officials’ accounts through social engineering. The hackers sent out malicious links disguised as links designed to move conversations to another messaging platform.
Today’s press release follows a 2021 FBI Private Industry Notification PIN that warned against deepfakes, which are widely used in foreign influence and cybercrime. The FBI believed that recent attacks are increasingly sophisticated and, therefore, pose a real threat to Americans.
FBI offers a plan to fight against enhanced audio deepfakes
The FBI urged the public and businesses to stay vigilant and reduce the risk of AI phishing and video or voice cloning. The Agency told the public to be aware of urgent messages asking for money or credentials. It added that businesses should explore multiple technical solutions to reduce the number of phishing and social engineering emails targeted at employees.
“As technology continues to evolve, so do cybercriminals’ tactics. Attackers are leveraging AI to craft highly convincing voice or video messages and emails to enable fraud schemes against individuals and businesses alike. These sophisticated tactics can result in devastating financial losses, reputational damage, and compromise of sensitive data.”
– Robert Tripp, FBI Special Agent in Charge
The FBI urged businesses to combine technology with regular employee education about the dangers of phishing and social engineering attacks. The agency added that the use of Multifactor Authentication solutions added extra layers of security and made it more difficult for cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access to accounts and systems.
In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revealed that cybercriminals targeted IT helpdesk assistants in social engineering using AI-generated voice impersonation to deceive targets and obtain personal identifying information.
LastPass CEO Karim Toubba was also a victim of the same attacks. He revealed last year that one of his employees was targeted in a voice phishing attack. Europol warned in 2022 that cybergroups would soon use deepfakes to target CEOs, the creation of non-consensual pornographic materials, and evidence tampering.
A report from Deloitte predicted that fraud losses in the U.S. may reach $40 billion by 2027 as generative AI helps fraudsters. Deloitte revealed that fraud losses increased from the $12.3 billion predicted in 2023.
Accenture’s survey of 600 cybersecurity executives at banks also revealed that 80% of the respondents believed generative AI improved hackers’ abilities faster than banks could cope.
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