The scammer may claim that the victim has unpaid taxes and threaten them with arrest if they don’t pay up immediately. Or they might claim that Social Security or Medicare benefits will be cut off if the victim doesn’t provide personal identifying information (which could then be used to commit identity theft).
Regardless of who callers claim to be representing, it is important to remember that government agencies will not you call, text or email you asking for money or personal information. Only scammers do that.
There are a number of things that you can do to protect yourself from government impersonation scams:
- don't send cash, use gift cards or cryptocurrency or use money transfer services (such as Western Union or Moneygram and similar) to pay someone who contacts you claiming to be with the government. The real government will not ask you to make payments using methods such as these, but scammers will. Scammers like this because it is hard to track the money, and almost impossible to get it back
- don't trust your caller ID. Caller ID can be faked (or spoofed), so just because your caller ID is displaying the real phone number of an agency or their name, it doesn't mean it is really them. The caller could be calling from anywhere in the world.
- don’t give your personal information or any financial information to anyone who calls, texts, or emails and says they’re with the government. If you are not sure whether a call or message could be real contact the government agency directly at a number or email address that you know is correct.
- don’t click on links in unexpected emails or text messages. Scammers will often include links in their text messages or emails that lead to sites that look like they belong to the agency they claim to be, but they aren't. These sites will be designed to steal your money or information or infect your computer/smartphone with malware.