Malicious actors used AI-generated voice technology to impersonate senior US officials, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, in smishing and vishing attacks targeting government officials and their contacts to gain access to personal accounts and sensitive information.
Since April 2025, malicious actors have conducted an ongoing campaign targeting current and former senior US federal and state government officials using AI-generated voice messages and text messages. The attackers impersonated senior US officials to establish rapport and gain access to personal accounts by sending malicious links under the guise of transitioning to separate messaging platforms. The campaign specifically targeted White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, with attackers appearing to have breached her personal cellphone and gained access to her contacts list. Senators, governors, and business executives received text messages and phone calls from someone claiming to be Wiles over several weeks. The FBI issued a public service announcement warning about the campaign and noting that AI-generated voices are increasingly being used to impersonate public figures and personal relations to increase believability. The attacks use traditional smishing and vishing techniques enhanced with AI voice generation technology to conduct social engineering schemes aimed at stealing login credentials and personal information.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed