They Pretend to Be Companies You Trust: The $3.5 Billion Impersonation Scam Epidemic

A text claims you owe an overdue toll. A caller says your bank account has been compromised. A message bearing a familiar company’s logo warns that an unauthorized payment is about to be processed.

The communication looks legitimate. The person sounds professional. And the problem supposedly requires immediate action.

Then comes the request: transfer your money, reveal a verification code, provide financial information, or follow instructions to protect your savings.

It may all be a lie.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports that Americans lost $3.5 billion to impersonation scams in 2025, nearly 20% more than in 2024. Consumers filed more than one million reports about these scams, making impersonation the most frequently reported fraud category for the ninth consecutive year. Reported losses have nearly tripled since 2020.

The trend isn’t just about more fraudulent messages. The FTC’s latest analysis highlights the growing danger of fake security alerts, fraudulent toll-payment demands, and schemes that manipulate victims into moving their own money.

These figures represent reported losses, not every incident. Many victims never report fraud, so the full financial toll remains unknown.

The FTC’s 2025 data show two particularly costly categories:

• Business impersonators: Nearly $1 billion in reported losses, with bank impersonation producing the highest reported losses within this category.
• Government impersonators: About $920 million in reported losses, up from $789 million in 2024.

Together, those categories account for roughly $1.9 billion — not the entire $3.5 billion. The remaining losses involve other forms of impersonation, including schemes using different identities, stories, and methods of contact. The figures should not be treated as an exhaustive breakdown of every impersonation tactic.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) provides a separate perspective. Its 2025 report recorded about $798 million in losses associated with government impersonation among internet-related complaints. That figure is not directly comparable with the FTC’s $920 million: the agencies collect reports through different systems and classify complaints differently.

The two datasets nevertheless show that government impersonation is a serious financial threat.

You receive a call, text, or email warning that someone is trying to steal your money. A supposed bank employee offers to help secure your account.

You may be told to move your money to a supposedly safe account, withdraw cash, or share a verification code.

The danger: You believe you are protecting your savings when you are actually handing control to a criminal.

The FTC specifically warns that some of the costliest impersonation scams begin with a fake security alert and persuade victims to move money to protect it.

A message appears to come from a retailer, delivery service, utility provider, technology company, or another business you recognize.

It may claim that a payment failed, an order was placed without your permission, or your account needs immediate attention. The message directs you to a telephone number or website controlled by the scammer.

The criminal may then ask for payment, personal information, or remote access to your device.

The danger: Recognizing a company’s name or logo doesn’t establish that the communication is genuine.

A caller claims to represent a government agency. You are told that your identity is connected to a crime, that you owe money, or that you face arrest or another penalty unless you act immediately.

The caller may use official-sounding language, fabricated case numbers, and personal details to make the story convincing.

The danger: Fear and urgency are used to discourage independent verification.

A government agency will not demand that you transfer your savings to a supposedly safe account, deposit cash into a Bitcoin ATM, or hand money or gold to a courier to protect your funds. Those are major scam warning signs.

You receive a text about an unpaid toll, a delivery problem, or an alleged fee. It threatens a penalty, late charge, or account suspension unless you pay through the supplied link.

The FTC reported a 40% increase in government-impersonation reports in 2025, with fraudulent overdue-toll messages contributing to the trend. Scammers may imitate real toll systems to make their demands seem credible.

The danger: The link may lead to a fake payment page designed to steal your financial details or money.

Contact the relevant agency independently. Never use the contact information in the suspicious message to verify its claims.

This scam often overlaps with the fake bank alert. A supposed investigator may claim to be working with your bank or law enforcement to catch criminals who have supposedly accessed your accounts.

The caller may insist that ordinary bank employees cannot be trusted, that you must keep the investigation secret, or that you must follow special instructions to protect your money.

The scammer may pose as a bank employee first and then introduce a second person pretending to be a government official or investigator. These multiple-persona schemes can make a fabricated story seem more convincing.

The danger: You are persuaded to distrust the very people who could help you verify the story.

Older adults are not inherently less capable of recognizing fraud. Many are experienced, careful, and financially responsible. But a convincing scam can inflict devastating losses on anyone — particularly someone who has spent decades building retirement savings.

In an August 2025 analysis, the FTC examined business- and government-impersonation scams reported by adults aged 60 and older. The analysis covered 2020 through 2024, not the separate 2025 national figures cited earlier.

The findings were alarming:

• The number of reports from older adults who lost $10,000 or more to these schemes increased more than fourfold between 2020 and 2024.
• The number of reports involving losses over $100,000 increased nearly sevenfold.
• Combined reported losses in those over-$100,000 cases rose from $55 million in 2020 to $445 million in 2024 — an eightfold increase.

These are increases in reported cases and reported losses within specific scam categories, not estimates of all fraud against older adults. They also should not be compared directly with the FTC’s $3.5 billion national figure for 2025.

The FTC found that these high-loss schemes often begin with a fake story about a compromised bank account, a supposed criminal investigation, or a computer-security problem. The victim is then persuaded to move money to supposedly protect it or resolve the invented crisis.

The financial consequences can be devastating because the victim believes they are following legitimate instructions to save their money.

Scammers change their stories, but their payment demands often reveal the fraud.

Be especially suspicious if an unexpected caller or message instructs you to pay through:

• Cryptocurrency or a Bitcoin ATM. You may be told to withdraw cash and deposit it into a kiosk to protect your savings or resolve a supposed investigation.
• Gift cards. You are asked to buy cards and read out the numbers or send photographs of them.
• Wire transfers or unusual bank transfers. You are told to move money to an unfamiliar account to secure it or settle an urgent problem.
• Cash or gold couriers. Someone arranges to collect cash, gold, or other valuables from your home.
• Payment apps such as Zelle or Cash App. A supposed representative demands payment through an unofficial channel.

The FTC has documented cases involving Bitcoin ATMs, bank transfers, cash, and couriers collecting cash or gold. Its older-adult analysis found cryptocurrency was the most frequently identified payment method among reports of losses of $10,000 or more in these particular scams in 2024.

The FBI separately reported that complaints involving cryptocurrency kiosks in 2025 included more than $388 million in losses, with people over 50 accounting for more than half of the complaints and over $302 million in losses. This is a separate dataset covering cryptocurrency-kiosk fraud generally, not impersonation scams alone.

The rule is simple: never use an unusual payment method because an unexpected caller tells you it is the only way to protect your money.

You don’t have to recognize every new scam. You need a reliable process for dealing with unexpected requests.

• 1. Stop when someone creates urgency. Threats of arrest, account closure, financial penalties, or immediate loss are designed to make you act before verifying the facts. Slow down.
• 2. Never move money to protect it. Do not transfer funds to a supposedly safe account, withdraw cash for a courier, or send cryptocurrency because an unexpected caller tells you to.
• 3. Hang up and verify independently. Contact the bank, company, or agency using a number or website you already know is legitimate. Don’t use the number or link supplied by the suspicious caller or message.
• 4. Be careful when calling back. Some scammers try to keep victims on the phone so they cannot ask someone else for help or verify the story. End the conversation before making a verification call. If you suspect the original call has left your telephone line occupied or compromised, use a different phone or wait until you can safely make the call.
• 5. Don’t trust caller ID. A displayed telephone number or company name can be spoofed. A familiar-looking number is not proof of identity.
• 6. Never share verification codes with an unexpected caller. A one-time code can allow someone to access an account or approve a transaction. Don’t disclose it to someone who contacts you unexpectedly.
• 7. Treat secrecy as a warning sign. If someone tells you not to contact your bank, family, or authorities, pause and verify the story with someone independent.
• 8. Talk to someone before making an unusual payment. Scammers may deliberately try to isolate you. A short pause and a second opinion can interrupt their control over the situation.

Act quickly. You may not recover every dollar, but prompt action can sometimes prevent further loss.

If you sent money:

• Contact your bank, credit-card company, wire-transfer service, or payment app immediately. Explain that the transaction may be fraudulent and ask whether it can be stopped, reversed, or recalled.
• If you used a cryptocurrency ATM, contact the kiosk operator and your cryptocurrency service provider immediately. Recovery may be difficult, but report the transaction.
• Preserve messages, receipts, telephone numbers, account details, and other evidence.

If you shared personal information:

• Change compromised passwords, starting with your email and financial accounts. Use unique passwords and enable multifactor authentication where possible.
• If you shared your Social Security number or other information that could be used to open accounts, consider placing a free credit freeze with each of the three nationwide credit bureaus, or a fraud alert. A freeze restricts access to your credit report and can help prevent new accounts from being opened in your name.
• Visit IdentityTheft.gov for a personalized recovery plan and guidance on reporting and recovering from identity theft.
• If you installed software or gave someone remote access to your device, disconnect it from the internet and get help securing the device and affected accounts.

Report the incident to the real organization being impersonated and to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. If the fraud involved substantial financial losses or internet-enabled criminal activity, you can also file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov.

A person caught in a convincing scam may be frightened, embarrassed, or convinced that the supposed investigator is legitimate. Telling them they are being foolish can make them defensive and less likely to listen.

Instead, stay calm and focus on protecting them rather than proving them wrong.

Try saying: “I can see why this sounds serious. Let’s pause before moving any money and call the bank using the number on your statement. We can check this together.”

If the person is still on the phone with the suspected scammer, encourage them to end the call and speak with someone they trust. Don’t shame them if they have already sent money. Help them contact their bank and report the incident as quickly as possible.

The goal is to break the scammer’s isolation and urgency tactics without making the victim feel they have to defend their decisions.

A company warning customers about impersonation is a useful reminder, but it does not establish how many customers have been targeted or how much money has been lost.

For example, AmeriGas published a warning on August 6, 2024, saying it had seen examples of scammers impersonating the company to obtain customers’ personal and financial information. AmeriGas specifically says it will not request payments through online chat or social media, or ask customers to pay through Zelle or Cash App.

That is evidence that AmeriGas encountered impersonation attempts. It is not evidence of a current nationwide AmeriGas scam wave or a quantified number of victims.

The same principle applies to banks, retailers, delivery services, and government agencies: criminals can borrow a legitimate organization’s name without being connected to it. Verify the communication before paying or disclosing information.

Impersonation scams exploit trust. Criminals can copy a company’s name, spoof a telephone number, fabricate an official-looking notice, and build a story that feels urgent and believable.

The FTC’s $3.5 billion in reported U.S. losses in 2025 shows the scale of the problem. Separate FBI data also demonstrate the substantial losses associated with internet-enabled fraud and cryptocurrency-kiosk schemes. These figures come from different reporting systems and should not be added together.

You don’t have to be frightened of every call or text. You do need to recognize when someone is trying to control your decisions through fear, urgency, secrecy, or false authority.

When someone unexpectedly tells you your money is in danger, don’t move it. End the conversation, verify the story independently, and talk to someone you trust.

That pause could protect years of savings.

Trust the verification process, not the person making the demand. Scammers can imitate companies, banks, and government agencies. Independently verify unexpected requests before paying, transferring money, or sharing sensitive information.