Scammers love to wear a government badge because it makes people afraid. Government impersonation is one of the biggest scams in the country: people reported losing about $920 million to government imposters in 2025 alone.
How it works. A call, text, or email claims to be from the IRS, the Social Security Administration, Medicare, or even the police. There is a scary problem: unpaid taxes, a suspended Social Security number, a warrant for your arrest. To make it “go away,” you must pay immediately, and they demand an odd payment, almost always gift cards, a wire transfer, cryptocurrency, or cash. Fake toll and jury-duty texts are newer versions of the same trick.
The rule that ends this scam: no government agency will ask you to pay with gift cards, cryptocurrency, a wire transfer, or cash, and none will threaten to arrest you over the phone. A call like that is a scam. The IRS does sometimes use private collection agencies that call about old tax debts, but only after it mails you a notice first, and those agencies never take gift cards. Either way the safe move is the same: hang up and call the agency yourself at irs.gov or ssa.gov.
A quick example. A caller says he is from the Social Security Administration, your number was used in a crime, and you must “protect” your money by buying $1,000 in Apple gift cards and reading him the codes. Hang up. That is not how any agency works.
A note on gift cards and AI voice calls. Gift cards are a scammer favorite because they are like cash and hard to trace. If anyone tells you to pay a bill or a fine with a gift card, stop, it is a scam. And scammers now use AI to clone a loved one’s voice for fake “I’m in trouble, send money” calls. Protect your family with two habits: agree on a private safe word, and if you get a panicked call, hang up and call the person back on a number you already have. If you are on a landline, use your cell phone or wait a few minutes first, because a scammer can hold the line open and play a fake dial tone.
What to do:
- Hang up or delete. Do not press buttons or call back the number they gave.
- If you are worried it might be real, contact the agency yourself using the number on its official website (irs.gov, ssa.gov, medicare.gov).
- Never pay a government “debt” with gift cards, wire, crypto, or cash.
- If you paid, contact whoever you sent the money through right away, the gift card company, your bank, the wire company, or the payment app, and ask them to stop or reverse it. Some funds can be frozen, but only if you act fast.
- Then report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and, for internet crime, IC3.gov.