Scammers Impersonating Law Enforcement and Government Officials in Fraud Schemes

The FBI reiterates its warning to the public regarding ongoing widespread fraud schemes in which scammers impersonate US and foreign law enforcement or government officials to extort money or personally identifiable information (PII) from victims. This PSA is an update to Alert Number I-030722-PSA, published on 7 March 2022, titled, "FBI Warns of the Impersonation of Law Enforcement and Government Officials."

Between January 2025 and July 2026, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received nearly 61,000 complaints of law enforcement or government impersonation scams, with losses totaling more than $1.6 billion.

Scammers primarily contact victims through unsolicited phone calls; however, other methods, including text messages and emails, are also used. Scammers often spoof authentic phone numbers, email addresses, employee names, and credentials of well-known government and law enforcement agencies, including IC3. Scammers will use a variety of approaches while impersonating these officials, such as using urgent and aggressive tones, refusing to speak to or leave messages with anyone other than the targeted victim, keeping victims on the phone for the duration of the scam, or urging victims not to tell family, friends, financial institutions, or law enforcement about the call. The scammers demand payment through a variety of methods, including prepaid cards, couriers, bank wires, cryptocurrency, or cash inserted into cryptocurrency kiosks.

Scammers use many different pretenses in their initial contact with victims, often accusing the victims of wrongdoing while threatening severe consequences. Examples include: