A mysterious impersonator masquerading as Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reached out to 3 international ministers and two high-level US officers whereas imitating his likeness utilizing AI, based on a report.
The identification of the imposter just isn’t but identified, however he seemingly has “the goal of gaining access to information or accounts,” warned a July 3 missive despatched to State Division workers, the Washington Put up mentioned.
Along with the three unidentified international ministers, the Rubio impersonator additionally made contact with a US governor and member of Congress, the report mentioned.
“The actor left voicemails on the private encrypted messaging app Signal for at least two targeted individuals and in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal,” the State Division warning mentioned.
Authorities consider that the ruse started someday round mid-June and famous that the scammer arrange a Sign account with the title “[email protected]” to correspond with the officers. That e mail just isn’t Rubio’s precise deal with.
The imposter labored to mimic the secretary of state’s writing model and voice when blasting out the messages, tapping into artificial-intelligence-powered software program to take action, the Washington Put up mentioned.
The State Division warning concerning the incidents didn’t make it clear whether or not any of the highest officers who had been contacted ever responded.
Division workers had been urged to alert the Bureau of Diplomatic Safety about “any impersonation attempts.”
US officers vowed to “carry out a thorough investigation and continue to implement safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future.”
It’s unlawful to imitate a federal officer in a bid to realize confidential data.
Neither the State Division nor FBI responded to the New York Put up’s requests for remark.
Revelations concerning the Rubio imposter come on the heels of a number of high-profile impersonations. In Could, a misfeasor gained entry to White Home Chief of Employees Susie Wiles’ telephone system and started reaching out to numerous politicians and enterprise leaders, based on the Wall Road Journal.
That very same month, the FBI broadly warned about efforts to impersonate high US officers.
“Since April 2025, malicious actors have impersonated senior US officials to target individuals, many of whom are current or former senior US federal or state government officials and their contacts,” the FBI mentioned.
“If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic.”
In March, Sign was thrust into the political fray when a chat organized by former Nationwide Safety Adviser Mike Waltz and together with Rubio and different high Trump administration officers was by chance leaked to an included journalist. The dialogue concerned a deliberate US assault on Yemen.
The intense flub, dubbed “Signalgate,” sparked controversy over high officers utilizing the encrypted messaging service as a substitute of different superior safer communications networks.
