The FBIÂ is issuing this announcement to warn and provide mitigation tips to the public about an ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign.
Since April 2025, malicious actors have impersonated senior US officials to target individuals, many of whom are current or former senior US federal or state government officials and their contacts.
“If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic,” said the FBI in a public announcement statement.
The malicious actors have sent text messages and AI-generated voice messages — techniques known as smishing and vishing, respectively — that claim to come from a senior US official in an effort to establish rapport before gaining access to personal accounts. One way the actors gain such access is by sending targeted individuals a malicious link under the guise of transitioning to a separate messaging platform.
Access to personal or official accounts operated by US officials could be used to target other government officials, or their associates and contacts, by using trusted contact information they obtain. Contact information acquired through social engineering schemes could also be used to impersonate contacts to elicit information or funds.
“Smishing” is the malicious targeting of individuals using Short Message Service (SMS) or Multimedia Message Service (MMS) text messaging. “Vishing”, which may incorporate AI-generated voices, is the malicious targeting of individuals using voice memos. Both smishing and vishing use tactics similar to spear phishing, which uses email to target specific individuals or groups.
For smishing, malicious actors typically use software to generate phone numbers that are not attributed to a specific mobile phone or subscriber to engage with a target by masquerading as an associate or family member.
For vishing, malicious actors are more frequently exploiting AI-generated audio to impersonate well-known, public figures or personal relations to increase the believability of their schemes.
