FBI: Fake cop and government impersonation scams cost victims $1.6B

AI, fake uniforms, and mock government offices help crooks sell the con

Scammers impersonating law enforcement or government officials have cost victims more than $1.6 billion since January 2025, the FBI reports. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received close to 61,000 complaints of this type between January 2025 and July 2026, putting the average per-complaint loss at more than $26,000.

The most common type of scam is one involving criminals convincing targets to pay a sum of money to remove charges the fraudsters claim were filed against them.

Typically contacting targets via unsolicited phone calls, the scammers usually claim that the target has committed or is connected to a crime, and threaten consequences such as arrest and prison time if a payment is not made.

REG AD

Accounting for roughly 11 percent of the complaints is a different type of scam, which involves alleging victims did not fulfill their assigned jury duty or missed a court date, then threatening them with a fine or arrest unless they pay.

REG AD

Of these 6,833 complaints, scammers caused losses amounting to nearly $36 million.

A more profitable variant involves a more targeted approach. Scammers will complete some due diligence on a target, such as ascertaining their profession, and tailor the scam to their job.

The IC3 has seen cases in which scammers contact medical practitioners, for example, claiming their medical license is expiring or that it was used in the commission of a crime. Payment is then demanded either under the guise of renewing the license or as part of an extortion attempt to "protect their professional reputation."

Victims reported 3,322 instances of this kind of targeted scam, with total losses exceeding $37 million.

A far less common tactic, deployed in 496 of the total complaints, saw scammers claim that documents such as driver's licenses or passports had expired and demand payment to renew them.

Despite accounting for a minority of cases, criminals still netted $348,000 using this method.

Finally, and arguably the most elaborate tactic the IC3 outlined, was the targeting of Americans from different ethnic communities, foreign nationals, and international students in the US.

The nature of the targeting was not the aspect the criminals invested the most effort in. The general procedure was also similar to the other examples: Scammers impersonate foreign law enforcement or US-based foreign diplomatic officials, threatening to cancel the victim’s home-country passport or have them extradited.

REG AD

However, these scams sometimes involve video calls. The criminals are known to don a country’s law enforcement uniform, or in some cases even take the calls in movie-style sets they create to mimic real government facilities.

The IC3 said that it received 1,809 complaints of this kind of targeted scam during the 19-month reporting period, with total losses exceeding $140 million. 

It means nearly 10 percent of the overall losses stemmed from one scam that accounted for less than 3 percent of the total complaints.

Law enforcement impersonation scams are common across the world, although they may take different shapes from country to country.

In the Netherlands, for example, police received more than 7,200 reports of fake police officer scams in the first half of 2026 alone, although the criminals behind them don’t hide behind a phone or keyboard.

Scams in the Netherlands see fraudsters approach victims at their homes, usually targeting the elderly population, offering to safeguard their valuables while posing as a trusted authority.

In reality, the criminals simply steal the jewelry, money, bank cards, and other valuables they are entrusted to protect. 

Cases like these have surged across the country in recent years, and aspiring crooks as young as 14 have tried to cash in on the trend.

REG AD

Police have invested more in public awareness campaigns as a result.

The FBI reminded the public that neither it nor any other law enforcement agency will call an individual and demand payment or request personal or sensitive information.

Citizens should remember to ask for credentials and make attempts to independently verify the identity of the caller, such as calling the relevant office using publicly available details and asking for the caller by name.

The IC3 recently reported its most damaging year for internet scams. It released 2025’s data in April, covering all types of cybercrime, pegging total losses at $20.87 billion – the first time it has reported annual losses exceeding the $20 billion threshold. ®