The FBI Is Not Calling to Help You Recover From Fraud.
Being a victim of a scam is terrible, but falling victim to scammers a second time posing as law enforcement and promising to help you recover is even worse.
Scammers posing as employees of the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) were reported more than 100 times between December 2023 and February 2025, according toan April 18 public service report .
Impersonation scams are not new: For example,a widespread scheme in 2022 involved scammers posing as government and law enforcement officials, but this latest scheme is targeting people whose money has already been stolen.
How IC3 scam works
Fraudsters may contact scam victims by phone, email, social media or forums, posing as IC3 employees, the FBI alert said. They offer to help victims get back their lost money (or claim to have already gotten it back) and ask for payment or personal information, after which the victims lose their money and/or data to yet another attacker.
While there are several variations, in one example, scammers created female social media profiles, joined financial fraud victim groups, and invited members to contact via Telegram “Jaime Quinn,” the “CEO” of IC3 who completed the scam.
How to protect yourself from IC3 scams
If you have been a victim of fraud or identity theft, you are a potential target of an IC3 scam and you should remain vigilant and skeptical of anyone who offers to help you get your money back. IC3 will never contact you by phone, email, social media, apps or forums, and will never ask for payment (or refer you to anyone who requires payment) to get your money back.
If you are contacted by someone pretending to be a law enforcement officer or government official, by phone or online, do not give out sensitive information or send money, gift cards, or cryptocurrency to strangers.
You can report fraud to the real, legitimate IC3 at www.ic3.gov .