This Week in Scams: Cash Couriers and Fake Federal Agents

What AVASC's Database Is Seeing This Week

Our internal tracking system did not surface any new AVASC-specific scam clusters or public incident reports this period. A quiet week in our data doesn't mean scammers took a break — it means no new pattern crossed our reporting threshold yet. Nationally reported activity (below) remains very active, and we encourage anyone who has been targeted, even if the attempt was unsuccessful, to tell AVASC and file with the FBI's IC3 so the full picture stays current for everyone else.

FBI Alert: Crypto Investment Scammers Are Now Sending Couriers to Victims' Doors

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center issued a public warning this summer about scammers instructing victims, usually senior citizens, to participate in cash pickups purportedly to protect funds purchased through the scammer's cryptocurrency investment platforms, which, at this point, continued to deceptively appear legitimate to the victim.

The FBI notes this in-person collection tactic isn't unique to crypto fraud: in-person cash collection via couriers is a method utilized across many scams, including grandparent, law enforcement impersonation, tech support, and other scams. In other words, if you ever receive instructions to hand cash to a stranger who shows up at your door or in a parking lot, that is a scam signature regardless of the story attached to it.

The scale of the underlying crypto fraud problem is significant: the FBI's latest IC3 data found that losses involving cryptocurrency reached $11.3 billion in 2025, including $7.2 billion tied to cryptocurrency investment scams. The courier tactic appears to be an escalation designed to work around bank fraud controls that already catch many suspicious wire transfers.

Imposter Scams Remain the #1 Threat — Now Including Fake FTC and IC3 Agents

The FTC's own review of last year's reports found that imposter scams were the #1 scam for the ninth year in a row, with more than 1 million reports and losses increasing by nearly 20% to $3.5 billion. Government imposter reports specifically were up 40%, driven in part by fake unpaid-toll text messages that spoof real toll programs and threaten late fees or registration suspension if you don't pay immediately.

This week, the FTC is warning specifically about criminals impersonating its own staff: the FTC will never threaten you, say you must transfer money to "protect it," or tell you to withdraw cash or buy gold and give it to someone. Any of those requests is a scam, no matter how official the caller sounds.

The FBI has issued a similar warning about its own complaint portal: scammers claiming to have recovered a victim's lost funds or offering to assist in recovering funds have been impersonating FBI IC3 employees, and almost all complainants indicated the scammers claimed to have recovered the victim's lost funds or offered to assist in recovering funds — a ruse used to revictimize people who have already lost money to scams.

Separately, federal reporting shows this category is growing fast across government generally: recorded government impersonation complaints rose from some 17,300 in 2024 to nearly 32,500 in 2025, with documented losses climbing from around $405 million to $797 million, a trend investigators link partly to AI-driven voice and messaging tools that let scammers convincingly pose as officials at scale.

Servicemembers and Veterans: Watch for 'Military Debt Forgiveness' Pitches

As Military Consumer Month continues, the FTC is warning that scammers promise to solve your debt problems to trick you into paying them instead of your actual lender. If a caller offers to help you enroll in a special "military debt forgiveness" program, pause — that's probably a scam. Legitimate debt relief never requires payment before your debt is actually settled, and real government forgiveness programs don't cold-call you.

If You've Already Lost Money: Beware 'Recovery' Offers

One of the cruelest patterns in fraud right now is revictimization: scammers targeting people who are actively searching for help after a loss. The FBI has documented cases of scammers creating fake profiles in fraud-victim support groups, posing as fellow victims before referring people to a supposed recovery specialist who then attempts to gain access to their financial information under the guise of returning lost funds. No legitimate law enforcement agency or government office will ever ask for payment to recover money you've lost, and no one can guarantee they can get your money back for a fee.