AI, fake uniforms, and mock 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 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.
Accounting for about 11 percent of the complaints is a different type of scam then threatening them with a fine or arrest unless they pay.
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.
Victims reported 3,322 instances of this kind of targeted scam, with total losses exceeding $37 million.
Despite accounting for a minority of cases, criminals still netted $348,000 using this method.
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.