Scammers impersonating the FBI's own fraud-reporting centre
In July 2026 the FBI updated a warning first issued in April 2025 about an ongoing scheme in which criminals impersonate FBI personnel and the Internet Crime Complaint Center itself in order to re-victimise people who have already been scammed. The scheme uses AI-generated video, spoofed websites that harvest personal data, and fake FBI profiles on social media, and it is triggered precisely when a victim announces they intend to report the fraud.
- Year
- 2026
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Ongoing
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Recovery scams, Government impersonation, Deepfake voice and video scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-06
The facts, as recorded
- IC3 issued the original alert in April 2025 and updated it in July 2026 with new tactics.
- Almost all complainants reported that the scammers claimed to have recovered the victim's lost funds, or offered to assist in recovering them.
- One documented variant begins when a victim tells the original scammer they intend to file an IC3 report; an "FBI agent" then contacts them on Facebook Messenger and moves the conversation to Telegram.
- That contact sends a link to "update" the submitted IC3 report, which may carry malicious code or harvest further financial data.
- Another variant uses AI-generated video to produce fictitious promotional material for the fraudulent service.
- Spoofed websites are built to collect personally identifiable information entered by the user.
Why this case matters
There is something almost architectural about this one. The scheme does not merely target people who have been scammed — it targets the specific moment at which they decide to do the right thing.
IC3 describes the sequence plainly: the victim realises they are being defrauded and tells the scammer they are going to report it to the FBI. Shortly afterwards an “FBI agent” gets in touch on Facebook Messenger, moves to Telegram, and sends a link to update the report the victim just filed. The announcement of an intention to report is the trigger, which means the original operator and the follow-up are either the same people or people with a shared list.
The practical rule this produces
Reporting agencies do not initiate contact about your report on a messaging app, and they do not send you a link to update it. If you have filed a report, the way to check on it is to go back to the agency’s site yourself, the way you went the first time.
That rule is worth holding onto because the surface evidence is now unreliable. IC3 records this scheme using AI-generated video to produce promotional material and spoofed sites that look right, which means “it looked professional” and “there was a video of an agent” have both stopped being evidence of anything.
What it tells you about the scheme
Every scam on this site has a version of the same insight: the moment a victim is most vulnerable is not when they are being deceived, but immediately after they realise they were. That is when a plausible authority saying “we have recovered your funds” lands hardest. Expecting the second approach — and treating it as a fact about the crime rather than an opportunity — is the single most useful thing a recent victim can do.
Sources
- FBI Warns of Scammers Impersonating the IC3. FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The scheme's mechanics, the AI-generated video and spoofed sites, and the Facebook Messenger to Telegram sequence.