The Federal Bureau of Investigation released an alert on Dec. 19 warning that phony text messages and AI are being used to scam people in the orbits of high-level government officials in the United States.

“Since at least 2023, malicious actors have sent text messages and AI-generated voice messages — techniques known as smishing and vishing, respectively — that claim to come from a senior U.S. official to establish rapport with targeted individuals,” The FBI wrote in an announcement.

The bureau released a similar Public Service Announcement in May. It’s becoming increasingly common over the past two years for people to be duped by fake officials, including those from the Cabinet, Congress, and even the White House, according to the alert.

“Malicious actors are impersonating senior U.S. officials via text and AI-generated voice messages and targeting their contacts, including family members,” the FBI wrote in a recent tweet on the issue. The alert noted that they will typically want to talk about policy or the news before getting them to another platform to continue the scam.

“In this scheme, actors reach out to victims and engage them in a brief conversation on a topic they are knowledgeable about. They quickly request to move the discussion to a secondary, encrypted messaging app,” the agency added.

When the “malicious actor” is able to move the conversation to an encrypted messaging software, like Signal or Telegram, they then might be asked to give away sensitive information like a passport, a code that would allow access to the “victim’s contact list,” and even “wire funds to an overseas financial institution under false pretenses.” As for the contact list request, it allows scammers to target others within that individual’s circle.

However, the FBI recommended that people take extra steps to verify whether or not a message is legitimate, like cross-checking phone numbers and other ways the person contacted.

The bureau acknowledged that the recent developments in AI have added an extra roadblock for people to identify these scams.

“AI-generated content has advanced to the point that it is often difficult to identify. When in doubt about the authenticity of someone wishing to communicate with you, contact your relevant security officials or the FBI for help,” the announcement stated.

Different types of AI scams have been increasing, CBS News reported in October, as the technology rapidly develops.

It’s common knowledge that late-night shows skew to the Left, but the extent of the issue is far worse than most people realize. 

A report published by The New York Post last week found that 92% of jokes over the past year have been targeted at conservatives, representing a 10% increase compared to last year. The report was based on an analysis from media watchdog NewsBusters, which sifted through 818 episodes put out by the major mainstream late-night hosts, including Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers.

Those shows included 197 liberal guests and only two who were conservative, Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld and economist Oren Cass. 

NewsBusters found that Kimmel was the worst offender, making jokes targeting conservatives more than 3,000 times and focusing most of his ire on President Donald Trump. Of those jokes, 1,668 were about the sitting president. 

Other late-night hosts also mocked the commander-in-chief. Across the spectrum of hosts, there were more than 7,000 Trump jokes over the course of this year, representing a big uptick from last year. 

“The numbers don’t lie,” Media Research Center president David Bozell said, per the Post. “So-called late-night comedians are part of the entire elitist media complex that has fueled hatred of conservatives for years.”

It’s an interesting approach to take in the wake of Trump’s massive victory in the 2024 election. Late night is not doing well, and it shows. CBS announced in July that it was canceling “The Late Show” after the upcoming season, which inspired outsized reactions from the left. The network described the move as a “purely financial decision.” A report stated that the program was losing $40 million annually.

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Colbert went off on an expletive-laced tirade during his first monologue following the announcement, blasting President Donald Trump and CBS. Colbert mentioned how the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, paid Trump a $16 million settlement after being accused of election interference.

Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show saw a sharp spike in viewership after he returned from being taken off the air briefly in September. Kimmel was taken off the air for a short time after comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The saga began when Kimmel was accused of slandering conservatives when he suggested Kirk’s assassin was part of the “MAGA gang,” despite authorities saying otherwise. “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said at the time.

Kimmel’s post-suspension return drew a record-breaking 6.3 million viewers, more than triple his regular audience. A few days later, those numbers had dropped by 64%, leveling off at 2.3 million.