If you just got a call from someone claiming to be from a government or public service agency and you’re wondering whether it’s a scam or legitimate, start from skepticism. Most federal agencies contact you by mail before they ever pick up the phone, and government impersonation is one of the most costly scam categories in the country, with reported losses reaching $789 million in 2024 alone.1Federal Trade Commission. New FTC Data Show a Big Jump in Reported Losses to Fraud The good news is that once you know how real agencies actually behave on the phone, the fakes stand out quickly.
How Real Agencies Actually Contact You
The single most useful rule: if a phone call is the first you’ve heard about a tax debt, a benefit problem, or a Social Security issue, be suspicious. The IRS generally sends a letter before calling about taxes you owe or an audit.2Internal Revenue Service. When an IRS Letter Arrives, Taxpayers Don’t Need to Panic, but They Do Need to Read It The Social Security Administration sends decisions about benefit applications and disability claims by mail.3Social Security Administration. Contact Social Security By Phone A cold call about a tax debt or a suspended benefit is almost never real.
There is one narrow IRS exception. The IRS uses three authorized private collection agencies for certain older, inactive tax debts: CBE Group, Coast Professional, and ConServe. Even then, the IRS mails you Notice CP40 first, and the collector mails a follow-up letter of its own. Both letters include a taxpayer authentication number so you can verify who’s calling.4Internal Revenue Service. Private Debt Collection No letters, no legitimate private collector.
Some agencies do call out of the blue, and those calls are legitimate. The Census Bureau contacts households to complete surveys. A real Census caller identifies themselves by name and survey, leaves a case ID if they can’t reach you, and will never ask for your full Social Security number or bank account information. You can confirm one by searching the caller’s name in the Bureau’s staff directory or calling Census customer service at 1-800-923-8282.5United States Census Bureau. Verify a Census Bureau Survey, Mailing, or Contact
Courts also call. If you failed to respond to a jury summons, a real court may follow up by phone. But a court will not take a fine from you over the phone, and that gap is exactly what scammers exploit.
Red Flags That Mean It’s a Scam
The IRS and SSA both publish explicit lists of things they will never do on the phone. Any one of these on a live call is your answer.
The IRS will never call to demand immediate payment by gift card, prepaid debit card, or wire transfer. It will never threaten to send police or immigration officers to arrest you, and it will never revoke your driver’s license or immigration status over the phone.6Internal Revenue Service. Taxpayers Should Watch Out for Gift Card Scam
The Social Security Administration will never threaten you with arrest for refusing to pay, claim to suspend your Social Security number, pressure you to act right now, ask you to pay with gift cards or cryptocurrency, or tell you to move your money to a “protected” bank account.7Social Security Administration. Protect Yourself from Social Security Scams
Scammers also frequently impersonate local sheriff’s offices and courts, claiming there’s a warrant for your arrest or a penalty for missing jury duty that has to be paid immediately.8Federal Trade Commission. How To Avoid a Government Impersonation Scam – Section: Other Government Impersonation Scams Real courts and real law enforcement don’t collect fines by phone. If a caller is demanding payment, threatening arrest, or pushing gift cards, wire transfers, or crypto, you already know what the call is.
Don’t Trust the Caller ID
Scammers routinely spoof government numbers, so your screen can show “Social Security Administration” or a real IRS phone number even when the call is coming from another country. The FTC warns that caller ID can be faked and the call could be from anywhere in the world.9Federal Trade Commission. How To Avoid a Government Impersonation Scam
Phone carriers have been required since 2021 to use the STIR/SHAKEN framework on their internet-based networks to flag spoofed calls, but it doesn’t catch everything.10Federal Communications Commission. Combating Spoofed Robocalls with Caller ID Authentication A government-looking caller ID proves nothing on its own.
How to Verify the Call
The safe move is always the same. Hang up. Look up the agency’s number yourself, on the agency’s official website or through usa.gov, and call back on that number.11USAGov. Making Government Services Easier to Find Do not call back any number the suspicious caller gave you, and don’t trust a callback number they read to you over the phone.
Before you hang up, write down the caller’s name, department, and any case or reference number they mention. A real representative will not object to you verifying independently. When you call back on the number you found yourself, a legitimate agency will have a record of the outreach. A scam won’t.
For anything IRS-related, you can also log into your IRS online account to check whether you actually owe a balance, without giving anyone on the phone a single detail.
How to Report the Call
Report scam calls even if you didn’t lose money. Reports feed pattern-matching that shuts operations down faster. Where you report depends on who the caller pretended to be:
- General scam calls: file a report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC shares reports with law enforcement and enters them into the Consumer Sentinel database.12Federal Trade Commission. ReportFraud.ftc.gov
- IRS impersonation: report to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at tigta.gov or 1-800-366-4484.13Internal Revenue Service. TIGTA – The IRS Is Calling Me? Is This for Real?
- Social Security impersonation: file with the SSA Office of the Inspector General at secure.ssa.gov/oig/scam. You’ll create a 5-digit PIN; if an OIG investigator follows up, they’ll confirm that PIN so you know the follow-up is real.14Office of the Inspector General. Report Scams
- Internet-based scams: file with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.15Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Home Page – Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
If You Already Gave Out Information
If you handed over your Social Security number, bank details, or other sensitive information before you realized what was happening, act within hours, not days. Call the fraud department at your bank and any card issuer or account tied to what you disclosed, and ask them to freeze or close the affected accounts and change passwords and PINs.
Then contact one of the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion — and request a fraud alert. The bureau you contact is required to notify the other two. Pull your free credit reports at annualcreditreport.com and look for accounts you don’t recognize.
File an identity theft report at IdentityTheft.gov and save the Identity Theft Affidavit it generates. Take that affidavit, a government-issued photo ID, proof of address, and any evidence you have to your local police department to file a police report. The FTC affidavit plus the police report becomes your official Identity Theft Report, which carries more weight with creditors and credit bureaus than either document alone.
Don’t Overcorrect by Ignoring Real Calls
Scam awareness has a downside: some people start ignoring every unknown number, including legitimate ones. Ignoring real IRS contact gets expensive. The failure-to-pay penalty runs 0.5% of unpaid taxes per month, caps at 25% total, and doubles to 1% per month once you receive a final notice of intent to levy.16Internal Revenue Service. Failure to Pay Penalty
Ignoring a federal jury summons can bring a fine of up to $1,000, up to three days in jail, community service, or some combination.17Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 28 – 1866 Selection and Summoning of Jury Panels State and local courts add their own penalties for missed summonses, commonly $100 to $1,500.
The right posture isn’t blocking every unknown caller. It’s answering, saying very little, writing down what the caller claims, and verifying independently before you share anything or send a cent. Scammers get nothing, and real agencies get the response they actually need.