FBI Issues Guidance as Fraudsters Pose as IC3 to Extort Victims

Daily Security Review

The FBI has issued a warning to the public about a cyber campaign impersonating the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), using spoofed websites to trick victims into handing over sensitive information and money. Between December 2023 and February 2025, the agency received more than 100 reports of malicious activity tied to fake IC3 domains. Threat actors behind this scheme employ domain spoofing, making slight alterations to the legitimate IC3 web address, and even using sponsored search results to ensure their fraudulent sites appear prominently in Google and Bing searches.

Once victims land on these malicious websites, attackers seek to harvest personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, and banking details. In some cases, fraudsters attempt direct financial scams, demanding bogus fees for the “recovery” of stolen funds. To bolster credibility, some spoofed sites even replicate IC3’s own fraud warnings to mislead victims further.

The FBI stressed that neither FBI employees nor IC3 staff will ever directly contact victims to request payment for fund recovery. As part of its guidance, the agency urges the public to always manually type www.ic3.gov
into their browser, avoid sponsored links, and never send money or personal details to individuals they do not know.

The threat is part of a broader global trend of law enforcement impersonation scams. Recently, Spanish authorities arrested a group posing as Europol agents and U.K. lawyers to extort crypto fraud victims, echoing an earlier FBI warning about scammers spoofing government phone numbers. These cases underscore a sobering truth: in the digital age, trust has become one of the most exploited attack vectors.

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