A Fake Marco Rubio Is Making Calls in DC

First, it happened to Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles. Now, it's happening to the secretary of state. The Washington Post reports that somebody is impersonating Marco Rubio in voicemails and texts with the help of AI software. The State Department is investigating and has sent out a warning to all its employees. The fake Rubio "contacted at least five non-Department individuals, including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a U.S. member of Congress," said the alert. No names were given.

An exact motive isn't known, but the impostor was likely looking to gain access to sensitive information or accounts. The ruse—deployed via a bogus account on the Signal platform—isn't too difficult, an expert on the subject tells the newspaper. "You just need 15-to-20 second of audio of the person, which is easy in Marco Rubio's case," says Berkeley professor Hany Farid. "You upload it to any number of services, click a button that says, 'I have permission to use this person's voice,' and then you type what you want him to say." It was not clear if any of those contacted responded in any way. (Read the full story.)