FBI Warns: Fake Police and Government Scams Have Cost Victims $1.6 Billion

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has revealed that scammers posing as law enforcement or government officials have stolen more than $1.6 billion from victims since January 2025, based on nearly 61,000 complaints. On average, each victim lost more than $26,000.

The most common version of the scam involves criminals contacting targets by phone and claiming they are linked to a crime, then demanding payment to make the charges disappear. Another variant, accounting for about 11 percent of complaints, threatens victims with fines or arrest for supposedly missing jury duty or a court date. A more sophisticated and costly approach involves scammers researching a victim's profession before contacting them; for example, medical professionals have been told their licence is expiring or was used in a crime, with payment demanded to resolve the issue or protect their reputation. This tailored scam alone caused more than $37 million in losses across 3,322 reported cases.

A smaller number of scams involve fake claims that documents like passports or driver's licences have expired, requiring payment to renew them, which still resulted in over $348,000 in losses. The FBI also noted a more elaborate tactic targeting specific ethnic communities, foreign nationals, and international students in the US, though further details on this method were not provided in the initial report.