House of Lords peers have been warned to remain vigilant after scammers and suspected state actors were found to be impersonating members of the Royal Household and foreign dignitaries.
The warning was issued by Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, the Lord Speaker, who alerted members of the Upper House to an increase in sophisticated impersonation attempts.
According to a letter seen by The Telegraph, criminals and state actors have been contacting prominent figures while pretending to be trusted individuals or representatives of credible organisations.
Among the approaches seen recently were people claiming to be foreign dignitaries or members of the Royal Household.
Lord Forsyth warned that the increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence was making such attempts increasingly difficult to identify.
Fraudsters can now use cloned voices, doctored photographs and deepfake video calls to make it appear as though a communication is genuinely coming from a known individual.
The Lord Speaker urged peers to be particularly cautious about messages which appear “overtly flattering” or involve persistent contact without an obvious reason.
He also highlighted the use of time-sensitive requests, with scammers potentially using geopolitical events or other urgent situations to pressure their targets into arranging meetings or providing information.
WhatsApp and Signal were identified as among the platforms being used by threat actors.
The warning comes amid wider concerns about attempts by hostile states to gain access to parliamentarians and other prominent figures.
Lord Forsyth said that those behind the approaches could use information obtained from conversations to “cause embarrassment and damage”.
The latest warning follows an alert issued to MPs by Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle in December after intelligence agencies detected Russian-linked activity targeting commercial messaging platforms.
The National Cyber Security Centre previously warned that attackers had been impersonating WhatsApp support staff and attempting to persuade users to provide access codes, click links or scan QR codes.
There have also been concerns about foreign intelligence services attempting to establish relationships with parliamentarians through apparently legitimate online profiles.
MI5 previously issued an espionage alert after identifying two individuals who posed as recruitment headhunters while attempting to build connections with MPs and other parliamentary figures.
The warning from Lord Forsyth does not indicate that members of the Royal Family themselves have been contacted or targeted.
Instead, it highlights how scammers are exploiting the names and identities of people connected with the Royal Household to make their approaches appear more credible.
Lord Forsyth is the current Lord Speaker, having been elected to the position in January 2026 and taking office in February.
The role includes overseeing proceedings in the House of Lords and taking formal responsibility for security in the Lords area of the parliamentary estate.
