Threats, intimidation, or fake legal threats

• A caller says you missed jury duty, your SSN is tied to a crime, or a package in your name held drugs.
• Demands to stay on the line, not tell anyone, and pay a 'fine' or 'bond' by gift card, wire, or crypto.
• A video call with someone in uniform, sometimes called a 'digital arrest'.
• Personal threats to expose, hurt, or find you after a disagreement.

Fear shuts down the part of your brain that would otherwise ask 'does this make sense?'. Legal threats work because most people have never dealt with a warrant and don't know that police don't phone ahead, courts don't take gift cards, and nobody gets arrested by video call. Personal threats work by keeping you scared and silent.

• Hang up. Real agencies don't threaten arrest by phone or demand payment on the call.
• If a threat is against your safety, contact local emergency services and keep everything as evidence.
• Never pay to make a threat go away. If you did, here's what to do.
• Report it: to the FTC, to the FBI at ic3.gov, and to the app or carrier it came through.

More in the tips: Texts and calls.