Sen. Ben Cardin Targeted by Deepfake Caller Posing as Ukrainian Official

The sophisticated AI-backed scheme aimed to extract politically charged statements from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair.

Sen. Ben Cardin was targeted by a deepfake impersonator posing as former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba during a Zoom call.
The impersonator asked Cardin politically charged questions about supporting long-range missiles into Russian territory.
Cardin and his staff ended the call and quickly alerted the Department of State, which confirmed the caller was not Kuleba.
The Senate security office described the incident as technically sophisticated and warned of an active social engineering campaign targeting senators.
The FBI is investigating the matter, with experts noting the growing threat of AI-generated deepfakes in political and financial schemes.