A mysterious impersonator masquerading as Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reached out to three foreign ministers and two high-level US officials while imitating his likeness using AI, according to a report.
The identity of the imposter is not yet known, but he seemingly has “the goal of gaining access to information or accounts,” warned a July 3 missive sent to State Department employees, the Washington Post said.
In addition to the three unidentified foreign ministers, the Rubio impersonator made contact with a US governor and member of Congress, the report said.
“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 Department warning said.
Authorities believe that the ruse began sometime around mid-June and noted that the scammer set up a Signal account with the name “Marco.Rubio@state.gov” to correspond with the officials.
That email is not Rubio’s actual address.
The imposter worked to imitate the secretary of state’s writing style and voice when blasting out the messages, tapping into artificial intelligence-powered software to do so, the Washington Post said.
The State Department warning about the incidents did not make it clear whether any of the top officials who were contacted ever responded.
Department employees were urged to alert the Bureau of Diplomatic Security about “any impersonation attempts.”
US officials vowed to “carry out a thorough investigation and continue to implement safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future.”
It is illegal to mimic a federal officer in a bid to gain confidential information.
Neither the State Department nor FBI responded to the New York Post’s requests for comment.
Revelations about the Rubio imposter come on the heels of multiple high-profile impersonations.
In May, a bad actor gained access to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles’ phone system and began reaching out to various politicians and business leaders, according to the Wall Street Journal.
That same month, the FBI broadly warned about efforts to impersonate top US officials.
“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 said.
“If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic.”
In March, Signal was thrust into the political fray when a chat organized by former national security adviser Mike Waltz and including Rubio and other top Trump administration officials was accidentally leaked to an included journalist.
The discussion involved a planned US attack on Yemen.
The serious flub, dubbed “Signalgate,” sparked controversy over top officials using the encrypted messaging service instead of other advancedm more secure communications networks.
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