Sen. Ben Cardin says he was targeted by apparent deepfake call

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin was targeted by a caller who posed as a former top Ukrainian official during a recent Zoom call, according to a notice circulated to Senate offices and obtained by NBC News on Wednesday.

The caller, who was not identified, posed as former Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba, according to the notice, which was sent to Senate offices to warn them to be cautious about similar attempts.

Punchbowl News first reported the details of the deepfake.

The notice, issued Monday by the Senate’s security office, said that amid a rising tide of social engineering threats recently, "this attempt stands out due to its technical sophistication and believability.”

The notice detailed an email Cardin's office received on Sept. 19 from someone claiming to be Kuleba that turned into a conversation punctuated by what the notice characterized as "politically charged questions related to the upcoming election."

Cardin and his staff had met previously with Kuleba, "and when they connected on Zoom, it appeared to be a live audio-video connection that was consistent in appearance and sound to past encounters,” according to the notice.

Cardin and members of his team began to suspect the call was fraudulent when the person posing as Kuleba "began acting out of character and firmly pressing for responses to questions like ‘Do you support long range missiles into Russian territory? I need to know your answer,'" the notice said.

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According to the notice, the caller's questioning was "likely trying to bate the Senator into commenting on a political candidate."

Cardin and his staff ended the call, the notice said, adding that Cardin's office contacted the State Department, which confirmed the caller was not Kuleba.

The State Department and Capitol Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday night. The FBI declined to comment.

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Cardin referred to the caller as a "malign actor" in a statement about the incident his office released Wednesday night.

Cardin said the caller “engaged in a deceptive attempt to have a conversation with me by posing as a known individual.” He said he quickly ended the call and notified authorities, who are investigating.

“After immediately becoming clear that the individual I was engaging with was not who they claimed to be, I ended the call and my office took swift action, alerting the relevant authorities,” Cardin said.

Cardin’s office declined to comment further on the details of the call.

The incident also prompted a separate notice to Senate offices that warned of “an active social engineering campaign” that is “targeting Senators and Senate staff.”

That notice, which was sent by the cybersecurity awareness center and was also obtained by NBC News, directs offices about how to respond if they receive a suspicious message or a request for a video call with a foreign dignitary.

“Targets are contacted by threat actors posing as representatives of a foreign dignitary requesting an official video call that is, in reality, malicious,” the second notice says. “This technique is used to discredit the victim or gain additional information. Threat actors leverage existing relationships and other known information to appear legitimate.”

The FBI and other government agencies confirmed last month that Iran was behind efforts this year to send stolen materials from former President Donald Trump's campaign to President Joe Biden's campaign, which did not solicit the information, according to intelligence officials. NBC News reported this month that the Justice Department plans to file criminal charges in connection with the hacking of Trump’s campaign, according to two law enforcement officials.