Any official interaction with the police can be anxiety-inducing. Whether it’s getting pulled over on the highway or being contacted about an investigation, it’s natural to feel a spike of adrenaline—and if the interaction involves any hint of illegal activity on your part, it’s easy to fall into panic. Law enforcement officers are empowered to arrest and detain you, after all, and even if you know you’re innocent, that can be incredibly disruptive and frightening.
Scammers, of course, know this, and often use it to their advantage. They also use inexperience with law enforcement to their advantage, since most of us don’t interact with the police very often. That can make it more difficult to know when something’s “off” in your interactions with law enforcement (especially since it’s very easy to spoof the phone number of your local police station and use the names of real officers). Combined with the stress and anxiety, that makes it easier to convince you to do things you would never normally consider reasonable. But there are certain things real police officers will never ask you or instruct you to do. If someone claiming to be a cop tells you to do any of the following five things, you're almost certainly being scammed.
There are a variety of reasons law enforcement officers might contact you by phone, but they will never call you up regarding outstanding warrants or threatening arrest. As New York State Trooper Jennifer Jiron told Spectrum News earlier this year, police will “never call or email” about warrants. If law enforcement has a warrant out for your arrest, they will come and arrest you, not call you up to chat about it.
They will also never call you to solicit bail money for anyone. If a loved one is arrested somewhere and needs you to post their bail, they will be given an opportunity to contact you themselves, directly. No real police officer will call you up and make byzantine arrangements to get their bail paid. The moment the “officer” on the phone mentions a warrant or paying someone’s bail, hang up. You can then check whether there is an actual warrant or if someone needs your help independently—but chances are you won’t find anything.
Real police will also never try to convince you to pay them directly for anything, especially over the phone. A common scam is for fake cops to call you up to inform you that a warrant has been issued for your arrest—typically for something that sounds almost legit but that you didn’t actually do, like missed jury duty or some other court appearance. They then tell you that you can either be arrested immediately, hire a lawyer and face a stiff sentence, or pay immediately to make the warrant magically go away.
Real cops will never demand payment from you on the spot or over the phone, period. If you owe a fine, you’ll be able to pay it via official channels, and you’ll never have to do so under immediate time pressure.
Something else cops never do? Demand you pay a fine of any kind using gift cards, cryptocurrency, or via an app like Zelle. No matter how official they sound, how much personal information they might have, or how plausible your supposed crime, the moment they mention an alternative payment channel like that, you know it’s a scam.
Police investigating a crime might look into someone’s finances, sure. But real cops will never call you up and ask you to divulge personal financial information like account numbers, passwords, or your Social Security number. Real cops will get that information through the process of investigation, and won’t need to contact you for it. As FBI agent Kevin Vorndran told WTOP News, “No law enforcement official is going to make contact with you over the phone and ask you to provide your Social Security number.”
If they do, it’s because they want to clean out your accounts and steal your identity—because they’re not real cops.
Another way to know you’re dealing with a fraudulent law enforcement officer is if they insist that you must come meet them anywhere but at the police station—especially if the purpose of the meeting is to pay them for any sort of fine, bail, or penalty. They also won’t come to your house to collect money. If the police need to speak to you in the course of a legitimate investigation, they will come to you or make arrangements for you to come to the station to speak with them.
One of the hallmarks of any scam is isolation: The scammer doesn’t want you to speak with anyone else about what’s going on, because an objective third party might point out how crazy the whole scheme sounds. When someone is impersonating a law enforcement official, they will frequently warn you not involve anyone else or speak about what’s happening. Usually, their excuse is that it’s an “ongoing investigation” and your cooperation will be deemed insufficient if you make any attempt to fact check what you’re being told, or that the information is confidential. This psychological pressure is necessary to keep you inside the bubble of fake reality they’re spinning for you so you never stop to wonder why the FBI or your local police station wants you to quash a warrant by paying them in gift cards.
If you’re ever contacted by someone claiming to be a police officer, get their information (name, badge number, the specifics about the case involved) and hang up. Then call the police station (or other office it’s not your local police) directly, using a number you’ve independently sourced. If it’s a real investigation, there won’t be any trouble putting you back in touch with the officer or someone else who can help.
