FBI: Impersonation scams posing as police or government cost victims $1.6B

# What the FBI reported

From January 2025 through July 2026 the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received close to 61,000 complaints about scammers impersonating law enforcement or government officials. Total reported losses for that 19‑month period reached roughly $1.6 billion, which puts the average loss per complaint at more than $26,000.

# How the scams work

• Jury‑duty or missed court date scams: Scammers threaten fines or arrest for failing to appear. The IC3 logged 6,833 complaints of this type with nearly $36 million in losses.

• Profession‑tailored scams: Attackers research a target's job and claim, for example, that a medical license is expiring or was used in a crime. They demand payment to renew the license or to avoid reputational or regulatory consequences. The IC3 received 3,322 complaints of this kind, with more than $37 million in losses.

• Document‑renewal scams: Fraudsters claim driver's licenses, passports or other documents have expired and demand fees. These accounted for 496 complaints and about $348,000 in losses.

# Why some scams are costly

Targeted and multimedia approaches increase believability. When scammers research victims' professions or use video calls with realistic backdrops and uniforms, victims are likelier to comply quickly. The IC3 noted that these tactics required more effort but yielded larger payouts.

# Related international examples

The report notes similar trends abroad. In the Netherlands, police took more than 7,200 reports of fake police‑officer scams in the first half of 2026. Those schemes sometimes involved attackers visiting homes and offering to safeguard valuables while posing as authorities, then stealing the entrusted items.

# FBI guidance for the public

The FBI reminded people that neither it nor other law enforcement agencies will call and demand payment or request sensitive personal information as a condition for avoiding arrest. Practical steps the FBI recommends:

• Ask callers for official credentials and the caller's name.
• Independently verify the caller by calling the agency using publicly available phone numbers and asking for the named person.

# Broader context

The IC3 reported that 2025 was its most damaging year for internet scams overall, with total losses across all cybercrime categories at $20.87 billion. The impersonation schemes covered in this report are a significant subset of that wider rise in fraud.

# Bottom line

Impersonation scams remain common and increasingly sophisticated. Phone calls with urgent threats remain the primary vector, but targeted research and realistic video setups raise the odds of large losses. Verifying identities through independent channels is the straightforward defense the FBI emphasizes.