Scammers posing as FBI agents, IRS investigators, and other federal officials are now sending couriers directly to victims’ homes to collect cash, gold bars, and other valuables, according to a warning from the FBI’s Portland field office. The bureau’s alert spells out a simple rule: no legitimate government employee will ever dispatch someone to your door to pick up money. The scheme targets older adults in particular, and a recent federal prosecution in Ohio shows how the tactic works in practice, with two individuals charged after allegedly convincing victims to hand over gold bars to couriers who arrived at their residences.
Why doorstep cash collection scams are spreading in 2024 and beyond
For years, government-impersonation fraudsters relied on wire transfers, prepaid cards, and gift cards to extract money from targets. Public awareness campaigns and retailer interventions made those channels harder to exploit. The FTC reported major increases in cash payments tied to government-impersonation scams, a shift that coincides with scammers adopting a new playbook: instructing victims to withdraw physical cash or purchase gold and then hand it to a person who shows up at their front door.
The FBI’s Portland office described the sequence in detail. A caller claims to be a federal agent or government official, warns the victim of a fabricated legal or financial threat, and then directs them to withdraw funds or buy precious metals. A courier, sometimes described as a “secure transport agent,” arrives to collect the payment. Because the money leaves the victim’s hands in person rather than through a traceable electronic channel, recovery is nearly impossible. The Portland field office explicitly states that real agents do not operate this way.
The FTC reinforced that message with its own consumer guidance. The agency stated it “will never send people to a Bitcoin ATM,” “will never tell you to buy gold bars,” and “will never demand you withdraw cash and take it to someone in person.” The FTC also said it will never threaten consumers or tell them to transfer money to “protect it.” Those direct statements, published in a March 2024 press release, draw a bright line between real agency conduct and fraud, emphasizing that any demand for immediate payment is a red flag.
Federal charges and cross-agency warnings confirm the courier pattern
The doorstep collection method is not theoretical. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio charged two Indian nationals in an elder fraud gold bar courier scam. According to the DOJ prosecution release, the defendants allegedly participated in a scheme where callers first impersonated bank and customer-service representatives, then escalated to posing as government agents. Victims were told their accounts had been compromised and instructed to convert savings into gold bars, which couriers then picked up at the victims’ homes. The charges include money laundering conspiracy and other counts tied to the alleged scheme.
That case fits a pattern flagged by multiple federal agencies. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has issued alerts that describe how impostors pressure people to move money and even send someone in person, and one IC3 notice includes an illustrated fraud alert highlighting common warning signs. The U.S. Marshals Service issued its own warning, stating that marshals would not ask for money or banking information and would not demand gift cards or wires for any purpose. The IRS published guidance clarifying that its Criminal Investigation special agents do not demand payment, whether in cash, cryptocurrency, or any other form.
Each agency independently confirmed the same principle at the center of the FBI’s alert: real officials do not collect money at your door. They also do not threaten arrest, deportation, or license suspension over the phone or by text, and they do not ask you to keep conversations secret from family members or bank employees. Those behaviors, agencies stress, are hallmarks of fraud rather than standard government practice.
The FBI’s broader consumer safety hub reinforces this across scam categories, noting that the bureau will not contact private citizens to request moving money via wire transfer, cryptocurrency, gift cards, or prepaid cards. In its overview of common frauds and scams, the FBI urges people to slow down, independently verify any supposed problem, and refuse any payment request that must be completed immediately. When combined with the in-person courier warnings, the message covers virtually every payment method scammers have used in recent years.
Gaps in tracking and what to do if someone knocks
One significant limitation in the public record is the absence of granular data separating courier-based collection incidents from other government-impersonation subtypes. The FTC’s complaint data tracks cash payments broadly but does not break out how many victims specifically handed money to someone who appeared at their home versus those who mailed cash or dropped it at a location. The FBI’s IC3 reporting system similarly groups impersonation fraud without isolating the doorstep variant. That gap makes it difficult to measure exactly how fast the courier method is growing relative to other tactics.
DOJ prosecution releases, like the Ohio gold bar case, provide vivid detail about individual schemes but do not offer aggregate charging or conviction statistics for this specific fraud type. Without those numbers, the public relies on agency warnings and anecdotal case data rather than a clear statistical picture of the threat’s scale. Still, the fact that multiple federal offices have issued overlapping alerts suggests that doorstep collection has become a serious enough problem to warrant coordinated messaging.
For anyone who receives a call from someone claiming to be a federal agent and demanding payment of any kind, the first step is to hang up. Do not engage, do not withdraw money, and do not open the door for a courier. The FBI advises reporting suspicious contacts to its online tip portal or local field office, and the FTC encourages filing a complaint through its fraud reporting site so patterns can be tracked. If you have already sent money, contact your bank or financial institution immediately to see whether any transfers can be reversed and to flag your accounts for unusual activity.
If someone actually appears at your home claiming to be there on behalf of a federal agency to collect money, officials say you should not hand over anything, should not let the person inside, and should instead call local law enforcement. You can also look up the publicly listed number for the agency the person claims to represent and contact it directly-never use a phone number provided by the caller or courier. Genuine agents will not pressure you to keep their visit secret, will not insist you stay on the phone while they wait outside, and will not object if you say you are calling the police.
Older adults remain prime targets, but relatives and caregivers can help by talking openly about these schemes and agreeing in advance that no one will ever send money or valuables to a stranger without checking with a trusted family member first. Community presentations, bank teller training, and clear public statements from agencies all aim to cut through the fear and urgency that scammers manufacture. The central message threaded through the FBI, FTC, IRS, and Marshals Service guidance is straightforward: if someone claims to be the government and demands immediate payment-especially if they offer to send a courier to your door-it is a scam, and you should walk away from the conversation and report it rather than reaching for your wallet.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
