U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI Phoenix Highlight Email Scams and Preventive Measures as Part of National Senior Fraud Awareness Day

PHOENIX, Ariz. – As part of National Senior Fraud Awareness Day, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona and the FBI Phoenix Division’s fraud team are reminding the public to remain vigilant as sophisticated scammers are capable of targeting virtually all businesses and individuals in the digital age. If you or a loved one become a victim of one of these scams, our offices encourage you to contact law enforcement and your bank as soon as possible after the incident, ideally within 24 hours, to help minimize financial losses.

Unfortunately, in today’s world, no one is immune from the threats posed by scammers, who caused an estimated $20.9 billion in losses last year, according to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report– up more than $16 billion from 2020. Notably, Arizona ranked sixth in the country for total losses, amounting to nearly $631 million, behind only California, Texas, Florida, New York, and New Jersey.

Between staying connected with family and friends, shopping and banking online, and working remotely, we all depend on the security of our digital information. Protecting our digitally connected world has been, and remains, a key priority for the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI Phoenix.

Some of the most common scams include Business Email Compromise (“BEC”)– also known as email account compromise (“EAC”), spoofing and phishing, tech/customer support, government impersonation, non-payment/non-delivery, and grandparent scams.

Behind investment fraud, BEC scams accounted for the second largest loss amount across the nation in 2025—approximately $3 billion. BEC scams target businesses and individuals across industries that perform legitimate transfer-of-funds requests. In BEC scams, a scammer that has compromised a third party’s email account (through social engineering or computer intrusion), makes the scammer’s own account mimic the characteristics of the third party’s account that a victim would expect to see (including name, address, phone number, email address, logos, and font) to trick the victim into sending money to the scammer.

For example, a scammer that has compromised the email account of a real estate title insurance company might target a home buyer shortly before a real estate closing, instructing the buyer to send the down payment to a bank account in the name of the title company. The email, however, is not from, and the bank account does not belong to, the actual title company– both belong to the scammer. Because the email and bank information are nearly identical to the actual title company, the fraud is very difficult to detect and the buyer complies with the instructions, sending the funds to the scammer.

If you are the victim of a scam that involves sending money to a supposed bank or other financial institution, you should immediately (timing is imperative, as after 24 hours the probability of recovery is severely limited) take the following steps:

1. Call your financial institution; report that you have been the victim of a scam. Provide the date, time, amount, and details of the transaction (including the sending account number, receiving financial institution and account number, and transaction number); and ask the financial institution to send a recall of the transaction and provide a Hold Harmless Letter to the receiving financial institution.
2. File a Complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (“IC3”) at https://www.ic3.gov/ by clicking the red “File A Complaint” button. Be sure to include all available information about the scam: date, time, amount, and reference number for the transaction; sending financial institution and account number; receiving financial institution and account number; and details of the scam.

Immediately taking these steps after discovering  you have become a victim can trigger the Internet Crime Center’s Recovery Asset Team to start the Domestic Financial Fraud Kill Chainor International Financial Fraud Kill Chain processes to attempt to freeze the fraudulent account and recover any stolen funds. It is imperative that a victim take these steps immediately after discovering that he or she has been scammed. With every minute that passes, the likelihood that a financial institution and/or law enforcement can recover any stolen funds decreases substantially.

RELEASE NUMBER:    2026-075_cybercrime

For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/

Follow the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, on Twitter @USAO_AZ for the latest news.