FBI Warns Scammers Are Impersonating Its Own Fraud Hotline to Rob Victims Twice

Consumer Rights · Scam Alert · September 17, 2026

If someone contacts you claiming they can recover money you already lost to a scam, the FBI wants you to know: that call is very likely the same scam, wearing a badge. In a public service announcement issued this summer and still active, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) said criminals are impersonating IC3 itself — fake agent profiles, AI-generated deepfake videos, and spoofed websites ending in something other than .gov — specifically to re-target people who already reported being defrauded once. It lands alongside fresh FTC data showing Americans reported losing $3.5 billion to impersonation scams alone in 2025, out of a record $15.9 billion lost to fraud overall.

The FBI’s IC3 says criminals are impersonating IC3 agents to “re-victimize” people who already reported a fraud, using deepfake videos and spoofed .gov-style websites.^[1]
IC3 states plainly: it has no social media presence, never contacts people through Facebook, Telegram, or DMs, and never charges a fee to recover funds.^[1]
Americans reported losing a record $15.9 billion to fraud in 2025, up from $12.5 billion in 2024; imposter scams alone accounted for $3.5 billion of that.^[3]
Anyone 60 or older who suspects fraud can call the Department of Justice’s National Elder Fraud Hotline directly: 1-833-FRAUD-11 (833-372-8311).^[5]

1. What the FBI Actually Warned

IC3’s July 20, 2026 public service announcement (alert number I-072026-PSA) describes a “recovery scam” layered on top of an original fraud: criminals contact people who already lost money to a scam and reported it, and offer — for a fee, or for banking details — to help recover those funds through IC3.^[1] The bulletin lists the fraudulent contact methods directly: email, phone, social media, and even paid advertisements, with targets including people who had filed a real IC3 complaint after a previous loss.

The tactics IC3 flags as red flags are specific and checkable: fake FBI persona profiles on social media, AI-generated videos impersonating real FBI officials, and websites designed to look like ic3.gov but that don’t end in .gov. Reporting on the alert from cybersecurity outlets frames it as part of a broader pattern of criminals using generative AI to make impersonation scams more convincing than the text-based phishing emails of a few years ago.^[2]

IC3 does not maintain a social media presence and does not investigate crimes or recover funds through Facebook, Telegram, or similar platforms.

— FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, Public Service Announcement I-072026-PSA^[1]

Do not send money, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or other assets to people you do not know or have met only online or over the phone.

— FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, Public Service Announcement I-072026-PSA^[1]

2. Why Past Victims Are the Target

This is not a random cold-call scam — it is aimed at a list. Once someone reports a fraud to IC3, files a police report, or posts publicly about being scammed, their name becomes a lead for a second wave of criminals who know exactly what pitch will work: “we can get your money back.” The IC3 alert calls this out directly as re-victimization, and coverage of the alert has focused on the same detail — the scam works precisely because the person on the other end has already lived through the fear and shame of losing money once, and wants desperately to undo it.^[2]

This is also why the DOJ’s National Elder Fraud Hotline exists as a separate, distinct number from IC3’s website. The FBI’s own 2025 IC3 Annual Report found that Americans age 60 and older reported $7.7 billion in fraud losses last year — about a 60% increase from 2024, and the largest share of any age group.^[6] Older adults are disproportionately targeted for both the original fraud and the recovery-scam follow-up, and the hotline is staffed to walk a caller through verifying what’s real without requiring them to first identify a scam website on their own.^[5]

3. The Scale: $15.9 Billion, and Imposter Scams Lead the List

The IC3 recovery-scam alert lands against a backdrop the FTC quantified this year: Americans reported losing $15.9 billion to fraud in 2025, a record, up from $12.5 billion in 2024 — a roughly 27% year-over-year increase on reported losses alone.^[3] Investment scams accounted for the single largest share, at $7.9 billion, but imposter scams — someone pretending to be a government agency, a bank, or in this case the FBI itself — drove more individual reports than any other category for the fifth straight year, with $3.5 billion in reported losses.^[3] The FTC’s own reporting flags that even $15.9 billion almost certainly understates the true toll, since most fraud is never reported at all.^[4] AARP’s coverage of the same FBI and FTC data ties the trend directly to internet-crime losses, which the FBI separately put at $20.9 billion.^[6]

4. What a Real IC3 Contact Looks Like — and What It Doesn’t

The clearest verification step IC3 gives is also the simplest: type www.ic3.gov directly into your browser rather than clicking a link or following a search result, and confirm the address bar shows a .gov domain. IC3 does not solicit complaints or offer fund recovery through a phone call, a text, or a direct message on any social platform, and it does not charge any fee to file or process a complaint.^[1] Any of the reverse — an unsolicited contact, a request for payment, or an offer made outside ic3.gov — is the tell.

What’s Disputed or Unconfirmed

Scale of the recovery-scam scheme. IC3’s alert describes the tactic and warns the public; it does not publish a victim count or dollar total specific to this particular follow-on scam, as distinct from impersonation fraud generally.
Which AI tools are being used. Secondary reporting describes “AI-generated deepfake videos” without naming specific platforms or techniques; IC3’s own alert text is the more conservative of the two.
2025 vs. 2024 comparison basis. The FTC’s $15.9 billion figure is reported losses, not total fraud cost; the FTC’s own broader estimate of total (including unreported) fraud cost is a separate, larger, and more uncertain number.

How to Verify This Yourself

Read the FBI’s original alert directly at ic3.gov/PSA/2026/PSA260720 — this is the primary source everything above is drawn from.
Read the FTC’s 2025 fraud-loss data release at ftc.gov, another primary source.
File or check a complaint only at ic3.gov — never through a link sent to you.
For anyone 60+, the DOJ’s Elder Justice Initiative page at justice.gov/elderjustice lists the National Elder Fraud Hotline and what it can help with.

What You Can Do Right Now

If you already reported a scam, expect a follow-up scam. Treat any unsolicited offer to “recover” those funds — by phone, text, or social media — as fraudulent by default.
Never pay a fee, gift card, or crypto transfer to “unlock” recovered funds. No legitimate agency charges to return your own money.
Type ic3.gov and ftc.gov directly. Don’t click a link in an email or a search ad claiming to be either agency.
If you’re 60 or older, or calling on behalf of someone who is, use the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11, staffed Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Eastern.^[5]

Kemetic Minds Analysis

The cruelest design detail in a recovery scam is that it doesn’t require finding a new victim — it just requires a list of people who already proved they can be fooled once, and who are now motivated by something even stronger than the original con: the hope of undoing it. That’s a smaller, more targeted, and arguably crueler pool than the mass-market phishing text, and it explains why the FBI felt the need to say, in writing, that its own fraud hotline doesn’t use Facebook DMs. The fix here isn’t more vigilance in general — it’s one specific habit: never let anyone who contacts *you* be the one who tells you how to verify them. You make that call, to a number or an address you looked up yourself.

References

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internet Crime Complaint Center. (2026, July 20). FBI Warns of Scammers Impersonating the IC3 (Alert No. I-072026-PSA). ic3.gov — primary source. ↩
Security Affairs. (2026). FBI alerts public to spoofed IC3 site used in fraud schemes. securityaffairs.com ↩
Federal Trade Commission. (2026, June 26). FTC Data Show People Reported Losing $3.5 Billion to Imposter Scams in 2025 [Press release]. ftc.gov — primary source. ↩
CNBC. (2026, June 26). Imposter scams led fraud reports to the FTC for fifth straight year in 2025, causing $3.5 billion in losses. cnbc.com ↩
U.S. Department of Justice, Elder Justice Initiative. Find Help or Report Abuse — National Elder Fraud Hotline, 1-833-FRAUD-11. justice.gov — primary source. ↩
AARP. (2026). FBI, FTC report 2025 fraud losses. aarp.org ↩

Consumer Rights Sep 17, 2026FBI Warns Scammers Are Impersonating Its Own Fraud Hotline to Rob Victims Twice