The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) has received reports that our office's name, and that of the Social Security Administration (SSA), are being used in government imposter scams. These are usually intended to convince you to send money to scammers who use government office names because it sounds serious and legitimate.
We encourage the public to remain vigilant and not to provide personal identifiable information—such as a social security number—or bank account information or money in response to these false claims.
Examples of scams:
- Some scammers falsely represent themselves as the OVC Director and attempt to obtain personal information or money. OVC will never contact you this way.
- Other scammers may represent themselves as law enforcement, such as INTERPOL, the FBI, or the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and claim you have supported a terrorist network, such as Boko Haram. Law enforcement will never demand you pay immediate fines if you have not been convicted of a crime following a trial or plea agreement.
Then after you have been scammed, you may be contacted again to let you know that you are eligible for victim compensation or victim restitution from OVC and they may attempt to defraud you out of more money. OVC will never offer you victim compensation or restitution this way.
- Scammers may represent themselves as SSA Office of the Inspector General agents and request that you meet them in person to hand off cash. Agents will never pick up money at your door or in any type of exchange.
- Consumer reporting agencies may receive documentation claiming OVC is certifying that an individual is a victim of human trafficking for the purposes of blocking adverse items on their credit reports resulting from trafficking.
OVC does not have the authority to determine that individuals are trafficking victims, or to confer such authority on our grantees or any non-governmental organization. Refer to this FAQ for more information.
There are other ways our office’s name or the SSA’s name may be used in scams. Be wary. Neither OVC nor the SSA will demand money from you or threaten you with legal or criminal action if you do not pay.
View the Federal Trade Commission's How to Spot, Stop, & Report Government Imposter Scams infographic for information on avoiding and responding to these scams.
What to do next
If you have received a scam phone call, email, or message from a government agency do not respond directly. Look up the government agency’s real number on the agency’s site and call to verify the information you received. Do not call the phone numbers provided in the phone call, email, or message until you have confirmed them through another source.
You may report the incident to—
- the Federal Trade Commission online.
- the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker online.
- the SSA Office of the Inspector General online (for Social Security-related scams only).
After reporting, please notify us by email so we can track the frequency with which this scam is happening.