According to the FBI, the average per-complaint loss stood at more than $26,000, with the most common scam involving criminals convincing targets to pay a sum of money to remove charges fraudsters claim were filed against them. Scammers typically contact victims via unsolicited phone calls, alleging the target has committed or is connected to a crime, and threaten consequences such as arrest and prison time if payment is not made.
Approximately 11 percent of complaints (6,833) involved scammers alleging victims did not fulfill jury duty or missed a court date, then threatening a fine or arrest unless they paid. These complaints resulted in losses of nearly $36 million.
A more profitable variant involves targeted approaches where scammers research a victim’s profession. The IC3 saw cases in which medical practitioners were contacted with claims their medical license was expiring or had been used in a crime, with payment demanded under the guise of renewal or as extortion to protect their professional reputation. Victims reported 3,322 instances of this targeted scam, with total losses exceeding $37 million.
A far less common tactic, deployed in 496 complaints, involved scammers claiming documents such as driver’s licenses or passports had expired and demanding payment to renew them, netting $348,000.
Perhaps the most elaborate tactic involved targeting Americans from different ethnic communities, foreign nationals, and international students in the US. Scammers impersonated foreign law enforcement or US-based foreign diplomatic officials, threatening to cancel the victim’s home-country passport or have them extradited. These scams sometimes included video calls where criminals donned a country’s law enforcement uniform or used movie-style sets mimicking real government facilities. The IC3 received 1,809 complaints of this kind, with total losses exceeding $140 million — nearly 10 percent of overall losses from less than 3 percent of complaints.
The FBI noted that law enforcement impersonation scams are common worldwide, though they differ by 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, with fraudsters approaching victims at home, typically targeting the elderly, and offering to safeguard valuables while posing as trusted authorities. The criminals then steal the items entrusted to them. Dutch police have invested more in public awareness campaigns as cases have surged, with aspiring crooks as young as 14 involved.
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.