San Francisco unveils anti-scam push targeting government impersonators
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San Francisco launched a new initiative Tuesday to help residents verify whether communications claiming to be from City Hall are legitimate as officials look to combat a growing wave of online scams.
Why it matters: Government impersonation scams — from fake parking tickets and phony utility shutoff notices to bogus jail release calls — are on the rise, disproportionately target elder adults and cost Americans billions annually.
State of play: StopScams SF, funded by a $3 million JPMorgan Chase grant, will create a system for residents to check whether city payment requests are real, Amanda Fried, the city's chief assistant treasurer, said.
- The program will also send multilingual scam alerts, offer free financial counseling for victims to report the scam and recover funds, improve scam monitoring, make city websites more secure and help agencies better identify and respond to emerging fraud trends.
Zoom in: Scammers often impersonate government agencies by sending fake citations, threatening arrests over missed jury duty or demanding money through gift cards, cryptocurrency or wire transfers — methods the city says it will never use to collect payments.
By the numbers: Seniors are especially vulnerable, with adults age 60 and older reporting more than $7.7 billion in fraud losses last year — about a 60% increase from 2024, FBI data shows.
- Meanwhile, scams impersonating government agencies jumped 87% nationwide in 2025, per the FBI.
Case in point: Retired professor and San Francisco resident Jonah "Jojo" Raskin, 84, lost $30,000 after scammers posing as customer service representatives sent him a fake payment app email and convinced him he'd made a transfer error.
- They coached him on what to tell bank employees while withdrawing funds before directing him to hand cash to a courier.
- "I was too far gone down the rabbit hole to stop," Raskin said, adding that "it hurt to be scammed, both emotionally and financially."
Between the lines: City Attorney David Chiu is calling on victims to come forward and to not feel ashamed, saying his office will continue investigating scammers and pursue civil lawsuits against repeat offenders.
- "We've all heard these horror stories," Chiu said. "These are crimes that are committed by highly sophisticated networks that are evolving and adapting."
What's next: Officials are rolling out the program with the hope that it can serve as a model for other cities.