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If a deepfake was used to demand money, credentials, intimate material, or access to an account, stop communicating, preserve the original evidence, and report it quickly. Use the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) for internet-enabled fraud, a local FBI field office or tips.fbi.gov for an ongoing crime, threat to life, or national-security concern, and CISA’s Incident Reporting System for a qualifying cyber incident. Keep an untouched master copy of every file and document how you obtained and handled it.
What to do in the first hour
Deepfake scams are ordinary crimes carried out with synthetic audio, video, images, documents, or identities. The artificial media may make a social-engineering story convincing, but the report should focus on the concrete harm: an impersonation used to obtain money, an account takeover, extortion, identity theft, a threat, or another offense.
- Stop the loss. Do not send more money, cryptocurrency, gift cards, passwords, one-time codes, intimate images, or other files while you evaluate the demand. End the conversation rather than arguing with the sender.
- Verify independently. Contact the supposed family member, executive, employer, bank, or government office through a phone number or channel you already know to be genuine. Do not use contact details supplied in the suspicious message.
- Preserve the demand before blocking. Capture the conversation, profile, number, URL, date and time, and any warning banner. Save the original audio, video, image, document, or email export without editing it.
- Protect accounts and payments. Call your bank, card issuer, cryptocurrency exchange, mobile carrier, or email provider using its official contact route. Ask about a recall, freeze, account recovery, or takeover response and keep every case number.
- Report promptly. The FBI advises victims of cyber-enabled crime or fraud to file with IC3 as soon as possible; early reporting can improve the chance of recovering lost funds.
If there is an immediate physical danger, call local emergency services first. A suspected deepfake does not make an emergency less urgent.
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More than one report may be appropriate. A platform complaint can remove content, while a bank can attempt a payment recall and law enforcement can investigate the crime. Submit parallel reports and keep the resulting case numbers together.
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| Situation | Primary channel | What to include or expect |
|---|---|---|
| Internet-enabled fraud, financial loss, impersonation, investment or employment scam | IC3 | Complete the online complaint with identities, contact details, interaction history, transaction information, URLs, and files. File quickly, even if you do not yet know who created the synthetic media. |
| Ongoing crime, threat to life, imminent danger, or national-security concern | Local FBI field office or tips.fbi.gov | Describe the immediate risk, location, suspect identifiers, and what is happening now. Call emergency services for an immediate threat to life. |
| Qualifying cyber incident affecting an organization or public body | CISA Incident Reporting System or its 24-hour operations center | The 2023 joint bulletin lists report@cisa.gov and (888) 282-0870. Include technical indicators, affected systems, timing, and containment actions. |
| Payment already sent | Bank, card issuer, exchange, or transfer service, in parallel with IC3 | Request recall or freeze immediately. Provide payment date, amount, method, recipient, wallet address or account, and transaction ID. |
| Account takeover or stolen credentials | Compromised provider, carrier, and local police where appropriate | Reset credentials from a clean device, revoke sessions and tokens, preserve login alerts, and record provider case numbers for the IC3 report. |
| Threatening, intimate, or non-consensual synthetic material | Local police, FBI channel appropriate to the threat, and the platform | Preserve the original post and messages. State the threat, demand, audience, and deadline; do not redistribute intimate material while collecting evidence. |
IC3 is a complaint intake and referral system, not a guarantee that an agent will contact every complainant. A local field office or tips.fbi.gov is the better route when the crime is unfolding, someone faces danger, or national-security issues are present.
Capture volatile digital evidence before it disappears
Record the full context
A cropped clip can hide the account that sent it, the request attached to it, or the platform warning that explains how it was delivered. Take screenshots or a screen recording that shows the entire conversation, profile name, username, phone number or email address, profile URL, domain, date, time, and visible system notices. Scroll slowly enough that each message can be read, and capture the transition from the sender’s identity to the demand.
For disappearing or timed proof-of-life messages, the FBI specifically advises taking a screenshot or recording whenever possible. If the application prevents capture, write down exactly what appeared, when it appeared, and what device and account displayed it. Do not keep retrying in a way that could alter or delete the record.
Save native files and exports
Download the original image, video, audio, document, or email export using the platform’s normal function. Keep the downloaded file in its original format and filename. Do not trim a video, normalize audio, add subtitles, convert formats, or open-and-save a document over the original. A screenshot is useful context but is not a substitute for the native file.
Preserve complete email headers or a platform data export when available. Save attachments separately as well as the message that delivered them. If a service offers only a web view, record the URL and make a screen recording while the item is visible.
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Write down acquisition details immediately
For every item, note:
- the device, operating system, application, and account used to obtain it;
- the acquisition date and time in UTC, plus your local time if it helps explain events;
- the sender’s identifiers, the receiving account, and the exact URL or domain;
- the original filename, file type, and where the untouched copy is stored;
- whether the item was downloaded, exported, screen-recorded, or photographed; and
- any action that could have changed what you saw, such as opening, replaying, or exporting it.
Do not run the only copy through an online deepfake detector, social-media uploader, converter, or “clean-up” tool. Those services can re-encode the file, strip metadata, expose private material, or make it impossible to show what investigators originally received.
Build an investigator-ready packet
Investigators can work faster when the evidence is organized around a timeline and a specific offense. Create one short narrative, then attach the unedited files and context in clearly named folders. The packet should answer who contacted you, how the contact occurred, what was requested, what you did, and how you recognized the suspected manipulation.
Timeline
Use UTC timestamps where possible and keep the sequence factual:
- First contact and the identity the sender claimed.
- Each call, message, attachment, or video appearance.
- The request or threat, including any deadline.
- Payment instructions, credentials supplied, or files sent.
- Payments or account changes, with exact times.
- Independent verification, discovery of the suspected fake, and any response by the sender.
- Reports made to a bank, platform, police department, IC3, FBI office, or CISA, with case numbers.
Identity and communication records
- Names, aliases, phone numbers, email addresses, usernames, profile URLs, and domains.
- Complete text, audio, and video communications, not just the suspicious sentence.
- Call logs, voicemail files, email headers, message IDs, and platform export files when available.
- The identity the sender claimed and the known-good contact used to verify or disprove it.
- A list of information, credentials, images, recordings, or documents you supplied.
Financial and account records
- Payment date and time, amount and currency, method, recipient institution, recipient account, wallet address, and transaction ID.
- Bank, card, exchange, wire, gift-card, or payment-app receipts and dispute numbers.
- Login alerts, password-reset messages, new-device notices, and evidence of account changes.
- The exact loss or attempted loss, separating money actually sent from money demanded.
Media and context
- Native media files in their original formats.
- Screenshots or screen recordings showing how each item appeared in context.
- URLs, profile pages, warning banners, timestamps, and surrounding messages.
- Known-authentic comparison material, such as an earlier genuine message or video, if you lawfully possess it.
- A concise description of why the item is suspicious, clearly labeled as observations rather than proof.
Preserve integrity and document chain of custody
Keep one untouched master copy. Store it separately from files you view, annotate, enhance, or submit to a service. Make working copies for examination and label every copy so an investigator can distinguish the original from later processing.
For each transfer or copy, record who performed it, when it occurred in UTC, the source and destination, the method used, and the purpose. Restrict access to people who need it, especially when the material includes intimate images, identity documents, or private conversations. Keep a simple handling log with one line per event.
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Do not rename or overwrite the master. If a platform requires a different format for upload, retain the native file and state that a derivative was created for submission. Describe any trimming, transcoding, noise reduction, frame extraction, transcription, or other processing performed on a working copy. An edited clip may illustrate a point, but it should never be the only evidence.
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Describe suspected manipulation without overstating certainty
Your observations help investigators prioritize comparisons, but they are not authentication by themselves. Explain what you saw and why it conflicts with known reality:
- voice quality or phrasing that does not match the person;
- lip-sync drift, unnatural mouth movement, or inconsistent breathing;
- impossible reflections, lighting, shadows, or background geometry;
- altered scars, tattoos, jewelry, teeth, or other stable features;
- timestamps that conflict with the conversation or the person’s location; and
- a request that is inconsistent with the person’s normal behavior or established procedures.
Use wording such as “the lip movement appears delayed” or “the timestamp conflicts with the verified call,” rather than declaring that a file is definitely synthetic. Investigators may need the original metadata, platform context, and comparison material from a known-authentic source. A detector score, if one exists, is only an additional observation and should not replace the original file and chain-of-custody record.
When will the FBI investigate a deepfake?
The existence of a fake video, voice, or image is not automatically an FBI case. In 2022 oversight testimony, the FBI explained: “We cannot open an investigation purely because a deepfake exists, as fake speech may be protected by the First Amendment, but we can investigate this content and its creators when there is a clear nexus to a federal crime or a foreign actor.”
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Make that nexus explicit in your report. Identify the conduct, not just the technology:
- an impersonation used to obtain money, credentials, or access;
- investment, employment, romance, or business-email fraud;
- identity theft or account takeover;
- extortion, blackmail, or a demand backed by a threat;
- threats to a person, organization, or public facility;
- tampering with evidence or an investigation; or
- foreign influence or another activity involving a foreign actor.
Europol identifies CEO fraud, evidence tampering, and non-consensual pornography among criminal uses of deepfakes. FBI reporting also describes AI-assisted investment, employment, impersonation, and extortion schemes. State and local offenses may apply even when federal jurisdiction is uncertain, so report to local police when a person is threatened, intimate material is distributed, or a local crime has occurred.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Recognize the main fraud patterns
Executive or family-member impersonation
A cloned voice or fabricated video creates urgency: a wire must be sent, a secret must be kept, or a relative needs emergency help. Verify through a known-good channel, preserve the request and payment instructions, and ask the bank for an immediate recall if money moved.
AI-assisted investment and employment scams
Polished videos, interviews, recruiters, or “experts” can make a false opportunity look legitimate. Save the job posting or investment page, every identity used, the payment instructions, wallet addresses, and the complete conversation. The FBI’s 2025 IC3 Annual Report recorded almost $13 million in losses from AI-involved employment scams and more than $632 million in investment complaints with a reported AI nexus. These are complaint-based figures, not a measure of all deepfake fraud or its total prevalence.
Extortion and non-consensual synthetic intimate material
Do not pay or send additional material to prove anything. Preserve the demand, account identifiers, URLs, deadlines, and evidence of distribution. Avoid forwarding intimate files; provide them only through a law-enforcement or platform process that specifically requests them.
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Threats and public-sector or organizational incidents
If a synthetic message threatens life, targets critical operations, or affects a public body, prioritize emergency response and the appropriate FBI or CISA channel. Preserve technical indicators and affected-system details while the organization contains the incident.
After you submit a report
Save the confirmation page, complaint number, email receipt, and every agency or provider case number. Add later payments, new accounts, deleted messages, or additional victims as supplements rather than altering the original narrative. Keep your master evidence unchanged and provide working copies only when requested.
Watch for follow-on scams. Someone may claim to be an investigator, recovery agent, or cybersecurity specialist and demand a fee, cryptocurrency, gift card, or remote access. Verify any contact through the agency’s published channel and never surrender your evidence or credentials to an unsolicited caller.
Tell investigators if the suspect can still contact you, whether the content remains online, and whether a deadline is approaching. For safety, ask the platform about preservation or removal while retaining your own copy and the URL. Removal can reduce harm but may also erase context, so capture the evidence first.
Quick Recap
Common mistakes that weaken a report
- Waiting until every detail is certain before filing; report promptly and supplement later.
- Submitting only a cropped clip, screenshot, or detector result instead of the native file and full context.
- Editing, re-encoding, enhancing, or uploading the only copy to a third-party service.
- Deleting the account or blocking the sender before recording identifiers, URLs, and messages.
- Describing “a deepfake” without explaining the money, threat, account, identity, or foreign-actor connection.
- Sending evidence by ordinary email without access controls when it contains sensitive or intimate material.
- Assuming an IC3 submission automatically recalls funds; contact the bank or payment provider immediately as a separate action.
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