Impersonation schemes are on the rise, and artificial intelligence (including deep fakes and voice cloning) will only make these schemes more difficult to detect.

Threat actors are emboldened, evidenced by the fact that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently published an alert that threat actors are impersonating CISA employees in vishing attacks in order to obtain money. (View our previous related posts here.)

Threat actors impersonate government employees to try to scare individuals into providing information and financial payment, including the IRS and the FTC. The FTC has provided numerous Scam Alerts on this subject matter, which can be accessed at www.ftc.gov

CISA reminds us that “CISA staff will never contact you with a request to wire money, cash, cryptocurrency, or use gift cards and will never instruct you to keep the discussion secret.”

Remember that scammers are bold and unscrupulous. Heed the recommendations of CISA and FTC on how to detect and mitigate against impersonation voice calls.