FBI Warns of Scammers Posing as Feds Pretending to Help People Recover Money

If you’ve been a victim of fraud, be wary of emails or phone calls claiming to come from the FBI. They may be another scam. 

The agency today warned that fraudsters are impersonating employees from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and “revictimizing” people who’ve already been defrauded. “Between December 2023 and February 2025, the FBI received more than 100 reports of IC3 impersonation scams,” it says.

Fraudsters have long impersonated federal or government officials. But this recent campaign may have gained even more potency after the FBI said it had been reaching out to thousands of people who’ve fallen for cryptocurrency scams.

On Friday, the FBI noted that the “scammers claimed to have recovered the victim’s lost funds or offered to assist in recovering funds,” making the offer hard to resist. In addition, the culprits are using social media to reach out to potential targets, including users in groups dedicated to helping financial fraud victims. 

“Scammers then recommend actual victims reach out to [a] male persona, ‘Jaime Quin’ (Quin), the alleged ‘Chief Director’ of IC3, via Telegram,” the FBI says. “Once contacted, ‘Quin’ claims to have recovered the lost funds, but uses this as a ruse to gain access to their financial information and revictimize them.”

Users on social media have been warning about the “Jaime Quin” persona for the past year. In one case, Quin claimed he could recover a victim’s lost money, but only if $5,000 was first placed into a “trust app.”

The FBI notes that the IC3 “will never directly communicate with individuals via phone, email, social media, phone apps, or public forums.” 

“If further information is needed, individuals will be contacted by FBI employees from local field offices or other law enforcement officers,” the agency says. “The IC3 will not ask for payment to recover lost funds, nor will they refer a victim to a company requesting payment for recovering funds.”

Users should also avoid sharing any sensitive information with people they’ve just met online or over the phone. If a real FBI agent calls, it’s “doing so to get you to stop giving money,” the agency noted in February. “We want you to take a beat, to slow down, to not give more money to anyone you don’t know.”

To report fraud, victims can still file a complaint on the IC3’s official website or call 1-833-FRAUD-11 (or 833-372-8311).

About Michael Kan

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I’ve been working as a journalist for over 15 years—I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017.

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