Impersonating the IC3, Scammers Scam Victims Again

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is the FBI’s program for reporting, investigating, and dealing with cybercrimes. It’s a legitimate program run but the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation, and every time we talk about reporting scams, it’s one of the places we recommend reporting it. But scammers are full of unscrupulous tricks. They have started impersonating the IC3 to gain the trust of scam victims and scam them again. The basic fraud involved in this scam is similar to other scam recovery scams. The scammer finds someone who has been a victim of a previous scam. They promise that they can help you get back what you lost in that scam. But in reality, it’s all a pretense to victimize you again. Impersonating the IC3 is just a new twist on the same story. The scammers reach out to you by email or phone call, or they connect with you on social media or in online forums for scam victims. Sometimes they pretend to be someone with the IC3 immediately. Other times, they pretend to be a fellow scam victim and refer you to someone at the IC3 who can help. Regardless of the story, it’s all a ruse. There’s no real IC3 agent or FBI agent involved – just a scammer impersonating them. Once you’re in contact with the fake IC3 employee, they ask for information. They may claim that they need your information as part of their investigation. Or they may say that they’ve recovered the money, but you have to give them info as part of the process to return it to you. They ask for personal information, financial information, or both. Once they have it, they can drain your accounts, steal your identity , and more. You are excited to get your money back, but you’ve just been scammed again. In another variation, the fake IC3 employee refers you to a scam recovery company that charges fees. They hope that because you think a government agency referred you to the company, it’s legitimate. In reality, the company is also a scam. You’ll pay for their services, but you’ll never get your money back. According to the IC3 itself , they never communicate directly with individuals. If you reported your circumstances to them and they need more information, they will have your local FBI field office or your local law enforcement contact you. Nobody from the IC3 will ever call you, email you, or send you a text message. And anyone who tells you that you can reach them over social media or apps like Telegram is lying. So if someone contacts you claiming to be from the IC3 or tells you how to contact an IC3 employee, they’re scammers impersonating the IC3. The IC3 also never asks for a payment or fee for recovering lost funds. And no legitimate government agency would want a payment in gift cards, cryptocurrency , or any payment method you couldn’t use to buy a candy bar at your local drugstore. They also don’t partner with any companies, such as law firms or scam recovery companies, and they’ll never refer you to one of these companies. Only scammers impersonating the IC3 will try to refer you to an outside company. A lot of best practices for avoiding scams apply to scammers impersonating the IC3, too. Some top tips to keep in mind: It is very easy to want to believe someone when they tell you that they can get your lost money back. And it’s easy to be impatient when you don’t hear anything from your IC3 report right away. But the IC3 can sometimes take years investigating incidents. And if they don’t need more information from you or don’t recover any money, you may never hear about it. It can be frustrating. But don’t let that frustration lead you into another scam. Use caution. If you come across this scam, report it! The FBI takes these complaints very seriously. They even have a specific complaint form on the IC3 website, different from the normal scam reporting form. You can find it at complaint.ic3.gov . Include as much information as you have, such as names, companies, phone numbers, email addresses, financial transaction info, and what they told you. Report all if it even if you think some of it was fake. This helps them investigate and stop the scammers.