How Scammers Are Taking Advantage of the Government Shutdown

Scammers never miss an opportunity to prey on people's fear and confusion—and now they're capitalizing on the ongoing federal government shutdown to steal money and information from vulnerable targets.

As Axios notes, reports of imposter scams—in which fraudsters impersonate government officials or agency representatives—rose in October as Americans experienced the loss of federal services and benefits. The Better Business Bureau's (BBB) Scam Tracker received 211 such complaints last month. Scammers are also taking advantage of shutdown stress to pull people into investment schemes and other malicious (and AI-driven) activity.

Common government shutdown scams

One common variety of shutdown scam is government impersonation. Bad actors may call, text, or email you pretending to represent