Overview
The victim expects to avoid or remove charges of drug sales or possession, weapons possession, kidnapping, terrorism, possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), or other serious charges.
How It Works
The scammer, impersonating a government official or entity, contacts the victim claiming that the victim has been accused of a serious crime.
The scammer offers that the victim can pay a fine instead of going to jail.
The scammer uses threats such as arrest in order to get the victim to comply.
The scammer could contact the victim using a variety of methods, however making the crime and charges appear serious encourages the use of more "official-looking" channels such as email that will support the use of letterhead and longer explanations.
Extortion, using force or threats to convince the victim to pay, is common with Serious Crime Accusation scams.
Related Articles
Related Scams
5.1 Government Fee Collection Scam: Similar psychology, but a less-serious accusation.
Related Crime Schemes
A particular instance of this scam may embed one or more of these related schemes.
Extortion: Extortion refers to any scheme that uses a threat of additional damage to extract payment from the victim.
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.
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.