Wire Transfer Fraud
256 reported numbers use this tactic across our directory. Calls demanding payment by wire transfer, MoneyGram, Western Union, Cash App or cryptocurrency.
About this tactic
Wire transfers and crypto payments are scammers' second favourite payment instrument, behind gift cards, for the same reason: irreversibility. Once a wire is sent or a cryptocurrency address is funded, recovery is essentially impossible. Federal agencies do not collect fines or fees by Western Union, MoneyGram, Zelle, Cash App, Venmo or cryptocurrency. The Treasury will never call to ask you to wire a "release fee" to claim a refund. The IRS does not accept Bitcoin. If a caller insists that the only acceptable payment is wire or crypto, the call is a scam — full stop, no exceptions.
Why this tactic works on otherwise careful people
The reason this tactic continues to extract money from college-educated, financially literate adults is not that the targets are gullible — it's that the tactic is engineered to bypass the parts of the brain that handle scepticism. Stress hormones rise within seconds of a credible threat, and once they do, the analytical capacity that would normally catch the scam is offline for several minutes. Scammers know this and structure their calls to maintain that pressure for as long as possible: rapid-fire questions, no time to think, transfers to "supervisors" that recreate the urgency every couple of minutes. The single most reliable defense is to break the rhythm — say "I'll call you back" and hang up. Almost no real official will object.
What to do during the call
- Don't engage with the script. Even "wait, who is this again?" gives the scammer something to work with.
- Don't confirm any personal information — not your address, not your date of birth, not the last four of your SSN.
- End the call. If you're worried it might be real, hang up and call the agency back at the official number from its website or your most recent paper notice.
- Add the number to ScamDialer if it isn't already listed.