Cybersecurity Scare: AI Deepfake Scammers Used Fake Marco Rubio Voice to Target Officials, Reveals New Report

A new report has revealed that someone used an AI voice to pretend to be US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, sliding into the DMs (well, Signal messages) of three foreign ministers, a US governor, and a member of Congress last June.

Whoever was behind it, they left voicemails for at least two targets. The plan? Classic social engineering: use AI-generated voice and text to trick their way into private info or maybe even snag some login details. 

AI Voice Scam Hits Foreign Ministers and US Lawmakers via Signal

This mystery scammer reached out using Signal, sometimes starting with a text, then nudging the person to move the conversation onto the app. While no one’s saying the State Department itself got hacked, the warning was clear: anyone who got fooled might accidentally spill the beans to the wrong people.

The report didn’t name who got contacted, and nobody’s pointing fingers at Rubio or the officials themselves—just a heads-up that the State Department’s now digging into it. One official told Reuters that they’re taking it seriously and beefing up cybersecurity.

The report also mentioned a previous campaign in April tied to a Russian cyber actor. That one targeted think tanks, dissidents, and ex-officials with phishing emails that looked legit, even copying State Department branding.

The hacker knew the department’s lingo and internal docs almost too well. Industry insiders are saying Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) was probably behind it. So, yeah, not exactly amateurs.

FBI Warns of AI Voice Scams

The FBI put out a warning in May that AI-powered voice scams were a thing now. They said crooks were using fake voices and texts to impersonate top government officials, hoping to fish for info or cash. 

The FBI’s keeping quiet about this week’s incident, but their earlier warning was pretty blunt: if these scammers get into one person’s account, they could move on to their contacts and cause a whole domino effect.

All this comes after last month’s oopsie, where ex-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz accidentally added a journalist to a chat that was leaking military strike details on Yemen.

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