FBI: nearly 61,000 complaints about fake police and government officials

On September 17, 2026, the FBI renewed its warning about scammers who impersonate U.S. or foreign law enforcement and government officials to extort money or personal information. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) logged nearly 61,000 complaints about these scams from January 2025 through July 2026, with reported losses of more than $1.6 billion. The alert updates an earlier FBI warning published on March 7, 2022.

How the scam works

Most contact starts with an unsolicited phone call, although the FBI says texts and emails are used too. Scammers often fake the phone numbers, email addresses, staff names and credentials of well-known agencies, even the IC3 itself. Common tactics include an urgent, aggressive tone, refusing to speak to or leave messages with anyone but you, keeping you on the phone for the whole scam, and urging you not to tell family, friends, your bank or the police.

The payment demands come in several forms: prepaid cards, couriers, bank wires, cryptocurrency, or cash inserted into cryptocurrency kiosks. The FBI adds that scammers use new technology such as artificial intelligence to appear as officials on video calls.

The stories scammers tell

The opening pitch often accuses you of wrongdoing and threatens severe consequences. The FBI's figures below cover January 2025 through July 2026:

• A crime accusation: you're told you committed, or are connected to, a crime and face arrest, prosecution or prison unless you pay to remove the charges or help investigate the "real" criminals. The FBI says these make up the majority of government impersonation complaints.
• Missed jury duty or a missed court date, followed by a fine or an arrest warrant that goes away only if you pay: 6,833 complaints and losses of nearly $36 million.
• An expiring passport, driver's license or professional license that supposedly needs a paid renewal: 496 complaints and losses of more than $348,000.

Who scammers single out

Medical practitioners may be told their medical license is expiring, or was used in a crime, and will be revoked unless they pay. The FBI counted 3,322 such complaints, with losses of more than $37 million. Scammers also target Americans from different ethnic communities, foreign nationals and international students in the U.S., posing as foreign law enforcement or U.S.-based foreign diplomatic officials and threatening extradition or the cancellation of a home-country passport. Some wear fake police uniforms and use mock government settings. Those schemes accounted for 1,809 complaints and losses of more than $140 million.

How to spot a fake official

• Real law enforcement and government authorities never call or text members of the public to demand any form of payment or to ask for personal or sensitive information.
• They never ask to be paid with prepaid cards, cryptocurrency or a courier.
• Being told to keep the call from your family, your bank or the police is one of the pressure tactics the FBI describes.
• Check any link before you click. Scammers use web addresses that closely mirror official ones, with slight variations or the wrong ending, such as .com instead of .gov.

How to verify a caller

Ask for credentials, then contact the agency yourself using official, publicly available contact information, never a number or link the caller provides. For jury duty, the federal courts say they don't require anyone to provide sensitive information in a phone call or email, and that most contact with prospective jurors comes through the U.S. mail. If you get such a call, the courts advise not handing over the information and notifying the Clerk of Court's office at your local U.S. District Court.

If you paid or shared information

The FBI's advice is to cut off all contact with the scammers immediately and notify your financial institutions so they can protect your accounts. Then report it to your local law enforcement agency and file a complaint with the IC3 at ic3.gov. The FBI asks you to include:

• the scammers' contact information, such as phone numbers and email addresses;
• financial details, such as bank account information or cryptocurrency addresses, and the payments that were requested or sent;
• copies of communications, such as text messages and emails.

Keep your financial records and messages. The FBI asks victims to retain them.

A real officer won't demand prepaid cards or crypto to make a warrant disappear. Stop, look up the agency yourself and contact it directly.