Overview
The victim expects to pay debts that they didn't know they had.
How It Works
The scammer, impersonating various financial institutions or businesses, convinces the victim to pay back debt they don't actually owe.
Also includes 'obituary debt scams' which are targeted to relatives of recently deceased people. In this scam, the scammer impersonates a business claiming that the deceased person died owing them money, and now this debt must be paid by the survivors.
Extortion, using force or threats to convince the victim to pay, is common with Debt Collection scams.
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 debt 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.
Related Articles
How Do I Tell if a Debt Collector is Legitimate or a Scam?, Consumer Finance
Obituary Scams, AARP
Listed as a "Top Five Scams Targeting Consumers" in January 2026 by PYMNTS report
"Fake debt collection (18%): Fraudsters pose as collectors demanding immediate payment. Victims span income and age groups, with strong impact across generations."
Listed as a "top 10 scam of 2025" by Vermont Attorney General, VermontBiz January 12, 2025
Related Scams
4.3 Inheritance Scam: The Inheritance Scam is similar to the Obituary Debt Collection Scam in that both of them make claims around the estate of a deceased person.
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.
Victim Targeting Context
The scammer may use one or more of the following techniques to reach the victim.
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.
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.
Banking / Finance: The perpetrator impersonates a banking official or financial institution.
Business or NonProfit: The perpetrator impersonates a business or nonprofit.