Today on shift (at the time I’m writing this), I was sitting at a red light, barely a block away from the Sheriff’s Office. A car coming into the intersection stopped right beside me. A woman jumped out after honking the horn and began frantically waving at me. “Uh-oh,” I thought. Seatbelt off, car in park, body cam on, let dispatch know where I am… I could see her visibly shaking and hear the fear in her voice as she pleaded, “you have to help me!” This could be anything, I thought.
“Sure. What’s going on?” I asked. She thrust her phone at me and said, “they say I have warrants. I’ve never even been pulled over. Can you talk to him? Please?”After a few questions I realized this was a scam I have seen many times before. I have always been fascinated by this type of scam but never imagined I’d get to brush up against them so often as a rural deputy. I got us both safely out of the roadway and into a parking lot, then I started to address the problem.
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This isn’t my normal “tactical” lane of articles. Scams like this are fascinating to me, and important for you to know about. Many of you probably don’t know that years ago I wrote several extremely popular books on digital security and privacy. I also made my living writing a blog and co-hosting a podcast about digital security and scams like this. The books, podcast, and blog got me hired at a D.C. startup in 2017 where I made obscene money before moving to the mountains for a life of privation as small town paramedic and deputy sheriff. If you want my most current advice on digital security, check out my book, Competent & Dangerous. It has an extensive chapter on these topics.
I guarantee that at least one person out there reading will fall for this scam…or already has. You should also inform your loved ones - your aging moms and dads, your naive college-aged kids, and your circle of intelligent, educated friends - about this scam. It may save them tens of thousands of dollars. I’m far from the first person to write about this. Several years ago, Charlotte Cowles, a business and finance writer wrote about this exact scam. She’s an extremely intelligent woman, but ended up giving away $50,000. I remember reading about it then. Years later, I was surprised that one of the first reports I wrote in my law enforcement career involved a very similar crime. This happens regularly. We take a lot of reports from people who have lost money in such a scam
What Happened
Let’s back up a bit, and I’ll explain what happened. Some scammer had gotten this woman’s name and address, and maybe a tiny bit of biographical information to seem more credible. This could have come from a hacked account, or just some simple Google searching - it doesn’t have to be a ton of information to make them seem to have credible. With this information he called her, claiming to be an “officer” my agency . He provided a name and a badge number and some other word-salad that probably sounds legitimate and intimidating to an average individual. She was convinced he was a cop.
He then told her that he had a “failure to appear” warrant for her arrest. He texted her some documents that would probably see legit on the surface. One was a federal warrant (or at least a document claiming to be) with her name on it. Another was a “Civil Process Manual” with an official-looking logo. At this point she was scared that she was in serious trouble with the law. “But don’t worry,” he assured her. We can take care of this for a fine of $9,000.”
Wanting to avoid any further trouble, the woman readily agreed. The scammer gave her instructions, and stayed on the phone with her as she went to the bank, withdrew all of the money she had in savings (nowhere near the $9,000, but the “officer” was willing to take it). He then directed her to a Bitcoin ATM where she could deposit the money.
What happens many times is the bad guy stays on the phone with the victim through the entire process. The victim cleans out his or her savings account. They take the money to a Bitcoin ATM and send it to the provided address. Once this happens, the money is usually gone forever. Though I used to work in the technology sector, I have no idea how this money could be recovered. In my current role I simply take a report, route it to our Criminal Investigation Division, and get back on the road doing my job. Maybe CID will do something about it but there is an insanely low likelihood the money will be recovered. That’s just the sad truth.
Fortunately, the bad guys slipped up. The would-be victim in my story smelled a rat. She texted her mom and said, “call the sheriff’s office and ask about Officer ___.” She then drove to the nearest law enforcement office, while telling the scammer she was headed to the Bitcoin ATM. She ran into me on the way to my office.
Anatomy of This Scam
I told several friends about this and they all had the same response: “why would anyone fall for that?” I understand the sentiment, but the numbers don’t lie. A lot of people fall for this scam. I’ve taken plenty of reports from folks who have fallen for this and sent tens of thousands of dollars into the BTC ether. These people range from elderly, working-class people, to people who retired in their 40s and have second or third homes in my area. And for every report taken, there are probably 10 cases that don’t get reported, either because the victim is embarrassed, afraid of interacting with law enforcement, don’t expect law enforcement to help them, or they are unaware that they’ve even been scammed. Here’s why it works.
First, it’s a numbers game.
In this case, the would-be victim handed me the phone. The guy on the other end said, “who is this?” I responded in an authoritative voice, “This is Deputy Carroll with the ___ Sheriff’s Office. Who is this?” he immediately hung up. Think about this - he came very close to getting around $2,000 for nothing more than conducting a little research and spending a couple hours on the phone.
When this one doesn’t work, he simply moves on to the next name and number on his list. Eventually he will find someone who is gullible, overwhelmed with life stress, ignorant of the legal system, or just scared enough to try to pay their way out of a potential problem. There is very little risk of getting caught, and if one in 100 works out, he’s made a few thousand dollars for a few hours of work. And occasionally, there’s a big jackpot that makes this even more compelling for the bad guys doing it.
Also keep in mind, these scammers are good at what they do. They know how to sound sympathetic, authoritative, or shift into “used car salesman” mode when needed. Simply put, they know what buttons to push and how to push them through a lot of trial and error.
Sidebar: My potential victim caught onto the scam, but she wasn’t confident in her suspicions. Knowing a little bit about federal and local law enforcement agencies can help you pick up on some of these cues. I can think of some ways they bad guy could have improved his research and improved his likelihood of success, but I’m not going to publicly post those.
Ignorance of the Legal System
I deal with people all day who have been to jail before, been to court, missed court dates, been prosecuted, convicted, paroled, done probation, been fired from jobs, struggled with addiction to hard illegal drugs, know cops by name… This is far from the experience of the average Citizen. The average, law-abiding Citizen is intimidated by the jargon, which is used intentionally so they can’t make sense of what is happening. The goal of the scammer is to confuse, muddy the water, and distract. The potential victim doesn’t think they committed a crime…but this “officer” wouldn’t be calling if they didn’t, right? Most people have seen enough CSI to think the cops never get it wrong, so a warrant with my name on it must be legit. Right?
The legal jargon is also to intimidate, and the law enforcement titles are play on the “authority” cognitive bias. We are more likely to comply with someone who we perceived to be in a position of authority. Though few people really know how the legal system works, most people understand enough to know they don’t want to get pulled into it. This woman, upon learning that she had warrants and had missed a court appearance, would do nearly anything to make it right. This included cleaning out her savings and driving to a Bitcoin ATM.
Threats Trigger Emotions
These scam calls are loaded with threats. “There is a warrant for your arrest. We are coming to your house now. You failed to appear and you will suffer the consequences. If you tell your husband he will be implicated.” This puts the victim into a high-arousal state: fear. People in a high-arousal state (fear, anger) are far more likely to take action than someone in a low-arousal state, like sadness or contentment.
Sidebar: this is why negative campaign ads work so well. Something like “Bill Clinton wants to let murderers out of prison,” triggers fear and anger, making you far more likely to vote. This is also why social media rage-baits you. The angrier you are, the longer you will stay on the app. The longer you stay on the app, and the higher your level of arousal becomes. The higher your level of arousal, the more likely you are to purchase something, increasing their advertiser revenue. This is exactly how social media works in 100 words or less.
The threats continue. “We are monitoring your phone. If you contact anyone, this is another charge.” This tactic is commonly used for two reasons. It creates a sense of omniscience that most people believe the government has. This increases the fear and the credibility: “only the government would be able to monitor my phone like that.” An alternative technique, used in Charlotte Cowles’ slightly more sophisticated case, was the tell her that her communications were being intercepted by “the bad guys.”
Next, threats help to isolate the individual. Isolation is INCREDIBLY important. The scammer doesn’t want some clear-headed relative getting the story and thinking about it. They do not want you contacting the police department or sheriff’s office and asking about the charges. They don’t want you researching the typical penalties for the supposed charges. They certainly don’t want you contacting a lawyer. For the scam to work, they must keep you isolated. Threats are one way to do so. Charlotte Cowles was threatened with, “If you talk to an attorney, I cannot help you anymore. You will be considered noncooperative. Your home will be raided, and your assets will be seized. You may be arrested. It’s your choice.”
Time Constraints/Deadlines
These scam calls are typically tinged with urgency. The scammer will say that the payment needs to be made as soon as possible. They will act like this is an emergency and you MUST ACT NOW! They may also impose a deadline like, “this must be done by the end of the business day.” The false sense of urgency is for a couple of reasons.
First, the sense of urgency heightens the high-arousal state. This, in turn, activates the brain’s emotional response system. The scammer is showing you a threat: potential jail time, the embarrassment of prosecution, having your car repossessed, your house foreclosed, and your bank accounts frozen. Your brain will do anything to deal with that threat and make it go away. If you can make the threat go away by simply paying a fine, you suddenly become happy to do so. What’s a few thousand dollars compared to going to prison?
Time constraints also help with isolation. If you do this NOW, while your significant other is at work, or before your parents get home, no one is there to stop you. You don’t have time to construct follow-up questions and get the full story, or talk it over with a friend. The faster the process moves, the less likely you are to really think about it. The less you think about it, the more likely you are to comply.
Keeping You On the Phone
The bad guys will come up with some contrived reason to stay on the phone with you. They may let you off the phone, but only briefly. In Charlotte Cowles’ case, the caller told her to Google the CIA’s phone number, then told her he would call her back from that number…and did. My victim’s bad guy told her he was on his cell, but would hang up and call her back from the sheriff’s office number…which he did. In both cases, the number was spoofed.
Outside of brief hangups like this, the bad guys will try to keep you on the line until you have turned over the money. These phone calls can take hours; my victim had been on the phone for 2 hours and 45 minutes when she ran into me. Charlotte Cowles spent over 5 hours on the phone. This is not an accident. Staying on the phone greatly increases the odds of compliance. It helps to isolate you. It keeps you in a high-arousal state. And it wears down your emotions; you just want it to be over.
Keeping you on the phone is one more isolation tactic. It prevents you from being able to talk to someone else about what is going on. Again and again, isolation pops up - it is critical to the success of this kind of thing.
Irreversible/Untraceable Payment Methods
When the bad guys have leveraged these tools to make you turn over the money, they want it in a format that is close to impossible to recall. They don’t ask for a certified check, personal check, or credit card transaction. You could easily cancel a check or report a fraudulent credit card transaction. It is much harder (it’s hard to overstate how much) to trace Bitcoin, due to jurisdictional issues and factors like the low technological literacy and heavy case-load of many law enforcement agencies. And tracing cash is actually impossible. Once its gone, it’s gone and no one using it has any real concern about being caught.
Avoiding a Scam Like This
Fortunately, there are some concrete steps you can take to avoid a scam like this.
Don’t get pulled into the conversation. The longer you talk, the more likely you are to get sucked into the program. If you smell a scam, hang up and block the number. Trust me, the cops don’t call and offer to let you buy your way out of a warrant. They also don’t want your money in the form of Bitcoin. If you get a call that’s going that direction, hang up.
INSIST that you call them back at their number. It is very easy to spoof a phone call. It is impossible to spoof a phone call so that when you call the sheriff’s office or police department or CIA, you will reach the scammer. This is why banks always tell you that they will never call you and ask for account information; you must call them. And to expand on that a bit…
As a matter of general practice, NEVER give out sensitive information to a someone calling you. Your bank knows who you are when they call you. If they are calling you, they should not need you to give your SSN, birth date, account numbers, etc. If they need to verify, ALWAYS insist on calling them back at the official phone number, NOT the number they give you on the phone. Any law enforcement officer, agent, investigator, prosecutor, etc. will understand this if you simply explain your rationale for wanting to call back.
Make an effort to understand your local LE agencies. One clue my almost-victim did pick up on was the Bitcoin ATM. Since I live in a rural area, we do not have a Bitcoin ATM in the county. She was directed to drive to a Bitcoin ATM in a neighboring county. This was a big clue for her because she was pretty sure that sheriffs only have jurisdiction in their respective counties. She thought it was odd to have to go to another county to pay this legal fee. Just a tiny bit of knowledge of the legal system (and a little luck) probably saved her all of her savings.
The federal LE agencies are pretty straightforward in what they handle, though there is some cross-over to be sure. To oversimplify, domestic, major crimes cases at the federal level are typically handled by the FBI. The Secret Service handles counterfeiting. The DEA handles drug-related cases (and to be fair so does FBI, DHS, etc.). The IRS handles tax fraud and tax evasion. The SEC handles financial crimes. The CIA is not chartered to work domestically. If the CIA is offering to help you launder money, it’s definitely a scam.
Protect your sensitive information. Scammers use sensitive information like your name, the names of your family members, your SSN, etc. to establish credibility and make you “buy in” to the scam. When you fall victim to a hack due to poor passwords, poor website security, etc, your information is often posted for sale on the internet. Bad actors purchase this information to commit scams like this one. If you want to harden your accounts, check out my book, Competent & Dangerous; Chapter 6 contains 57 densely-packed pages on doing just that.