Greg's Corner

When Scammers Target Abuse Victims

By Greg Collier

Scammers have never been particularly concerned with how low they have to sink to make money. But a disturbing scam now being reported in Colorado shows just how far criminals are willing to go.

They are targeting people who have just experienced domestic violence.

The scam is simple in concept but particularly cruel in execution. A person has just gone through a traumatic incident. Police arrive. An alleged abuser is arrested. The victim may be frightened, exhausted, and unsure what happens next.

Then the phone rings.

The caller claims to be a sheriff’s deputy or another official calling about the defendant’s bond. The caller may know the victim’s name, the alleged abuser’s name, and other details about the case. Then comes the demand for money.

It is a scam, but by the time the victim realizes that, the money may already be gone.

The scam arrives at the worst possible time

CBS News Colorado reports that domestic violence victims in Jefferson County have been losing hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars to callers who contact them within hours of an alleged abuser’s arrest. The local district attorney’s office says the scheme has been occurring for months and has recently become more frequent.

The scammers reportedly claim to be deputies from the county jail. They may provide a supposed deputy’s name and badge number. In some cases, they appear to know the full names of both the victim and the defendant.

That information can make an otherwise ridiculous story sound believable.

The caller then creates urgency. The victim is told that money must be paid immediately to deal with the defendant’s bond. Some victims have been instructed to send money through Cash App or Venmo or to purchase gift cards.

Those payment methods should be an immediate warning sign. But these aren’t necessarily calls being made to people sitting calmly at home evaluating an offer. They are being made to people who may have just experienced violence and are trying to figure out what happens next.

That is precisely what makes this scam so ugly.

The scammers know fear works

Domestic violence is fundamentally about power and control. Advocates told CBS that survivors may already have experienced financial control, isolation, or other forms of manipulation by an abusive partner. A sudden arrest can create another layer of uncertainty.

A victim may not have expected an arrest. They may not understand the court process. They may be worried about what happens next or concerned about the financial consequences of an incarcerated partner.

A scammer does not need to create that fear.

They simply need to exploit it.

The result can be devastating. One advocate told CBS that some victims live paycheck to paycheck and that losing money to the scam could potentially leave them unable to pay their rent and push them toward homelessness.

That is more than theft. It is taking advantage of someone who is already in crisis.

This isn’t just a Colorado scam

The fact that this particular scheme has been reported in Jefferson County does not mean people elsewhere can dismiss it.

The basic ingredients exist in communities throughout the United States.

Police departments make arrests. Jail bookings and court proceedings can generate public records. Social media can provide additional information about the people involved. Scammers can combine those pieces of information and then make a carefully timed phone call.

They don’t necessarily need access to a police database.

They may only need to know that an arrest happened, who was arrested, and who is connected to that person.

That means the scam could potentially appear in almost any city or town in America.

A scammer could impersonate a county sheriff in Texas, a city police department in Ohio, a court employee in California, or a jail official in Florida. The name of the agency changes. The script remains essentially the same.

Someone has been arrested.

Someone needs money.

Pay immediately.

Public information can become a weapon

One of the more troubling aspects of this scam is the possibility that criminals are combining publicly available information.

According to the Colorado report, officials aren’t exactly sure how scammers are identifying victims so quickly. Investigators suspect criminals may be combining public information about defendants and court hearings with information available through social media.

That is an important lesson for everyone.

A piece of information being public does not mean it is harmless.

A court record might identify someone involved in an arrest. A Facebook profile might identify that person’s partner. A public post might reveal where they live or who their family members are.

Individually, those details may not seem particularly valuable.

Put together, they can give a scammer enough information to sound like someone who should be trusted.

And with today’s technology, criminals have even more tools for organizing and exploiting information.

The government doesn’t demand bond money this way

The most important thing to remember is that an unexpected demand for immediate payment should never be accepted simply because the caller sounds official.

In the Colorado cases, officials emphasized that the jail, courts, and district attorneys’ offices will not call victims demanding money for a defendant’s bond. They also will not demand payment through Cash App, gift cards, or similar methods.

Caller ID is not proof.

A badge number is not proof.

Knowing your name is not proof.

Knowing the defendant’s name is not proof.

Even knowing details about the arrest is not proof.

The only safe way to verify the claim is to independently contact the appropriate agency using a telephone number obtained from an official government website or another trusted source.

Do not call the number provided by the suspicious caller.

Scammers will exploit the crisis you’re already in

This scam fits a much larger pattern in modern fraud.

Scammers monitor what is happening in the world and look for people who are particularly vulnerable at that moment. They exploit disasters, deaths, illnesses, arrests, financial problems, relationship problems, and even ordinary life events.

A hurricane becomes an opportunity for fake disaster-relief scams.

A major data breach becomes an opportunity for fake bank calls.

A medical diagnosis becomes an opportunity for fake insurance or Medicare scams.

And now, an extremely traumatic domestic violence incident can become the opening for a fake jail or bond scam.

The common denominator isn’t the technology.

It is vulnerability.

The criminals understand that someone who is frightened or overwhelmed is more likely to make a quick decision without stopping to verify the caller.

That is why the best defense is to slow everything down.

If you receive the call, hang up

If someone calls after a domestic-violence incident and claims to be from a jail, police department, court, or prosecutor’s office, do not send money because the caller says you have to act immediately.

Hang up.

Take a breath.

Then contact the agency yourself using an independently verified number.

If you have access to a victim advocate or domestic violence organization, you can also ask them to help you navigate the situation. They can often explain what happens next and help separate legitimate information from a scammer’s demands.

And if money has already been sent, report it. Being scammed is not something a victim should be ashamed of.

The shame belongs with the person who decided that someone’s worst moment was a good opportunity to steal from them.

Unfortunately, there is nothing about this particular scam that makes it uniquely Colorado. The same tactics can be adapted to virtually any community in America.

The next victim could be anywhere.

And that is precisely why people need to know about this scam before the phone rings.