I would wager that virtually everyone reading this report has, at some point, had someone try to scam them with a text or email.
The White House is not immune to that, as an investigation has been launched after someone tried to impersonate White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
Phone scams have always been around, but the invention of cell phones was a game-changer, and texting made it even more common. And it only got worse once we had messaging and social media applications.
Scammers have grown far bolder, however, now impersonating FBI agents and the IRS to create panic to get you to send them money or risk being sent to jail. And yes, these even happen at the highest ranks of our government.
In 2024, the FBI sent out a warning about a wave of scammers who had been impersonating FBI agents, demanding money or gold to avoid being arrested, with the scammers sending a courier directly to people’s homes to collect the bounty.
The report stated, “According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), 14,190 people reported being victims of government impersonation scams in 2023, with losses totaling more than $394 million dollars. Here in the Portland Division, which includes all of Oregon, financial losses exceeded $1.7 million dollars in 2023.”
In May, White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz was relieved from his position, but was then put up for an ambassador post by Trump. I have always believed the new post was out of loyalty to Waltz since he left his House seat to work in the Trump administration.
Waltz had added a reporter to what should have been a classified chat, and we were given various possible scenarios before we finally got to the truth.
Initially, Trump stated that he thought a Waltz aide added the reporter, then there were a few conspiracy theories that the reporter had misrepresented himself to get added to the chat. While that has happened in the past, that was not the case here.
As this played out, we later found out that it was Waltz who added the reporter, even though he denied having ever met the man (there is photo evidence that Waltz attended at least one event where the journalist was present).
Those examples above just go to show how common these scams are, and nobody is immune to having a scam pulled on them, including the White House.
Reports broke on Friday that business executives and government officials were receiving texts and calls from someone claiming to be Wiles. The White House responded, "The White House takes the cybersecurity of all staff very seriously, and this matter continues to be investigated.”
FBI Director Kash Patel added, "The FBI takes all threats against the president, his staff, and our cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness. Safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president’s mission is a top priority."
Reports later surfaced that Wiles had informed her staffers that her personal phone, which had all of these contacts, had been hacked. The report further stated that the hackers went to so far as to use an AI simulation of Wiles’ voice to make the calls more realistic. AI can be a great thing, but unfortunately, nefarious actors are already putting it use to find ways to scam people, even at the White House level.
