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5. Debt Scams

5.1 Government Fee Collection Scam

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Overview

The victim expects to pay back government debt or fines that they don't actually owe.

How It Works

  • The scammer, impersonating a government official or entity, contacts the victim claiming that the victim owes a fee which must be paid immediately.

  • The scammer uses threats such as arrest or additional fees in order to get the victim to comply.

  • The scammer will contact the victim using a variety of methods, including postal mail, SMS, email, telephone. However, since the scam relies on the victim thinking the fee is specific to them, passive advertisements can not be used. The scam must appear targeted, even if it is actually carried out as a spray-and-pray attack.

  • This scam family includes a wide variety of pretexts including:

    • Missed court date

    • Missed jury duty

    • Rezoning fees, fees associated with a public works project

    • Owing back taxes (IRS)

    • Unpaid motorway tolls

    • Unpaid traffic violations

    • Unpaid tariffs on goods

    • Unpaid customs payments for goods

    • False claims that the victim was overpaid by a government agency (such as the Veteran's Administration, Social Security Administration, or IRS) and now owes money back

    • False claims that a prison sentence can be reduced by paying a fine

    • False claims that a prisoner can be released from jail with an ankle monitor if a special fee is paid.

  • In the case of the prison scams, sometimes the scammer is also a prisoner and is choosing family members of other prisoners as victims. The incarcerated relative may or may not be in on the scam. In other cases, families of newly incarcerated people are chosen as victims. The municipality's jail records, which list people who are recently incarcerated, are used to generate the victim pool.

  • Extortion, using force or threats to convince the victim to pay, is common with Government Fee Collection scams.

Related Articles

Synthetic Examples

Related Scams

Related Crime Schemes

A particular instance of this scam may embed one or more of these related schemes.

  • Data Loss or Theft: Any scheme that results in victim losing data/scammer stealing data. Data in this context can mean login credentials, credit card details, or other personal or corporate information.

  • Extortion: Extortion refers to any scheme that uses a threat of additional damage to extract payment from the victim.

  • Fraudulent Platform: Any scheme that relies on custom built software that assists the crime. Includes fraudulent trading platforms, fraudulent clickworking platforms, and the like.

  • Insider Threat: Any scheme that uses insider access or information in order to work.

Victim Targeting Context

The scammer may use one or more of the following techniques to reach the victim.

  • Targeted Conversational Approach: The scammer approaches the victim through targeted, topical online conversation.

  • Spray and Pray / Scattered: The scammer approaches many victims at once such as through bulk email or SMS.

  • Semi-Targeted Regionally: The scammer approaches people in a certain region, for example by area code (toll scam) using semi-targeted email or SMS.

  • Semi-Targeted Collection: The bait (initial reachout) is sent out to people in a collection harvested online, for example from some data breach or corporate directory.

Social Engineering: Psychological Manipulations

The scammer may use one or more of these psychological techniques to accomplish the scam.

  • Authority: The scammer employs an abuse of a position of authority to convince the victim to go along with the scam.

  • Family: The scammer uses the victim's family members in the scheme, or implies the victim's family members are involved.

  • Shame: The scammer tries to make the victim feel some shame or embarrassment in order to get them to go along with the scam.

  • Threats: The scammer employs threats to increase fear in the victim so that they will go along with the scam. Threats can include financial loss, legal action, arrest, account closure, extortion, blackmail.

  • Timing: The scammer times the scam to coincide with events or a particular season in the victim's context or locale, in order to build legitimacy.

  • Urgency: The scammer employs urgency to increase the likelihood that the victim will take action.

Social Engineering: Impersonation Techniques

The scammer may impersonate one or more of the following groups as part of the scam.

  • Government Official: The perpetrator impersonates a government official.

EBNF Definition

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