The FBI warns about phone scams where callers impersonate police or federal agents and threaten arrest unless the victim pays immediately. The scams use pressure tactics (keeping victims on the phone, urging secrecy) and push hard-to-trace payments like prepaid cards, crypto, wire transfers, or cash to a courier.
Mirage safely runs attacks like this one against your own team, so you find out what happens before a real adversary does.
“This is Agent Miller. You’re tied to a criminal investigation and there’s an arrest action pending unless you resolve this now.” This is a vishing scam the FBI says has cost over $1.6 billion. Fake cops or federal agents threaten arrest, keep you on the phone, and push you to pay right now with prepaid cards, wire transfers, crypto, or even cash to a courier. They’ll say you missed jury duty or are linked to a crime, threaten arrest or prosecution, order you not to tell anyone, and insist you stay on the line while you pay to "remove charges" or "assist an investigation." Here’s the rule: if a caller threatens arrest and demands immediate payment, hang up, then call the real agency using a number you find yourself.
The FBI says scammers posing as law enforcement or government officials stole over $1.6B since January 2025, mainly by calling victims and threatening arrest, fines, or legal trouble unless they pay. Variants include jury-duty threats, targeted calls to medical professionals about license issues,…
Revolut confirmed it disclosed sensitive customer information after fraudsters sent “emergency” information requests from a legitimate government email domain. The attackers appear to have targeted high-net-worth customers, including people involved in crypto, and attempted to extort Revolut to…
A group of young scammers stole more than $240 million in bitcoin by calling a wealthy crypto investor and impersonating trusted companies. The callers claimed the victim’s accounts and wallet were under attack, then tricked him into granting access and sharing security codes that enabled the…
A real campaign of voice-phishing (vishing) calls targeted major hedge funds and private equity firms by impersonating internal IT/help desk staff. Victims were pressured into completing “routine” security steps and were sent to fake login pages that captured usernames, passwords, and MFA codes in…
Researchers say the BlackFile extortion group is actively targeting large financial and other organizations using voice-phishing calls where attackers impersonate IT support to get initial access. Victims are then pressured with multimillion-dollar extortion demands and, in some cases, escalations…
The article describes real-world social engineering aimed at both consumers and financial firms, including phone-based attacks on hedge funds and a turnkey scam kit that impersonates Tesla to steal cryptocurrency. The kit uses a professional-looking fake presale website with urgency tactics…
