Scams like these are common in Colorado.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, Colorado consumers lost $200 million to fraud in 2024, with a median loss of $500. Meanwhile, the Colorado Attorney General's office received 24,000 complaints of fraud the same year, a 20 percent increase from 2023.
Imposter scams, when a scammer pretends to be an entity or acquaintance to steal money or personal information, are one of the top complaints in Colorado, according to federal and state data.
“The way scammers get you is they scare you or they entice you,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser says.
Scammers know that most people think less rationally when frightened or excited, pressuring people to act quickly and use shady money transfer methods, including cryptocurrency, to siphon money from unexpected people, the AG explains.
According to the FTC, people in Colorado aged thirty to 39 and seventy to 79 filed the most reports of fraud last year, with both age groups filing over 4,400 reports. But the financial impact was much larger for the septuagenarians, who reported median losses of $1,000 compared to a median loss of $350 for those in their thirties. People eighty and over reported median losses of $2,000, but only around 1,000 of those people reported fraud attempts to the FTC.
“Anyone is vulnerable to a scam, and those who are more vulnerable often are older Coloradans,” Weiser says, adding that older generations often grew up more trusting.
Business imposters, online shopping fraudsters and government imposters were the top three categories of fraud reported to the FTC. Weiser’s office received 1,205 reports of imposter scams in 2024.
“In many cases, these scams relate directly to fraudulent telephone calls, emails or text messages from scammers posing as a government official or employees from a reputable company, often seeking monetary payments through gift cards, wire transfers, and other money transfer services,” according to the Attorney General’s office.
There are several types of imposter scams common in Colorado, Weiser explains.
Common Scams in Colorado
The grandparent scam is a common tactic where scammers reach out to people with grandchildren, saying their grandchild is in jail and needs money to get out. Such scams can cost people hundreds or even thousands of dollars, Weiser warns.The United States Postal Service often sees grandparent scams, too, with Postal Inspectors warning people about messages that start with “I’m in trouble…,” “I need…,” “You’ve won!...,” or “I have a great offer for you!”
The USPS cautions people against replying to texts related to personal mail and packages, as well. “The Postal Service will never send you an unsolicited text,” Melissa Atkin, a U.S. Postal Inspector based in Denver, says. “Any text or email claiming you have a USPS delivery problem is designed to steal your identity. Delete these messages, but before you do, send the bogus text or email to [email protected].”
Lottery scams are common, according to Atkin. In those schemes, scammers pretend the target has won an amount of money in order to get financial or personal information from the target in the process of “claiming” the reward.
Romance scams are also prevalent, according to Atkin and Weiser. Romance scams see people falsifying romantic interest in the target in order to lull them into a false sense of security. Generally, once scammers have built a false relationship, they will ask for money either under the guise of needing the funds to come meet the target in person or to cover some hardship in their lives for which the target would be sympathetic — like the fraudster who extracted thousands of dollars from a woman in France while claiming to be a hospital-ridden Brad Pitt.
“Then you're left with not just a broken heart, but with a hit to your checkbook or wallet, as well,” Weiser says.
City officer impersonation is such a common scam that the City of Denver put together a video outlining common impersonations and how to avoid them. Generally, scammers impersonate police, sheriffs and courts using publicly available names of real city workers falsely.
A common scare tactic is the caller telling someone they have to pay $500 to fulfill a bench warrant for failing to appear for jury duty, Weiser says.
“The way they can get people to believe it is they may even send an email that could look like it comes from the sheriff's office, except it's not coming from the sheriff's office. It's a scam,” Weiser outlines.
The AG recommends calling the actual department independently to verify the information if any city department appears to be soliciting funds through emails or over the phone.
Another common government impersonation scam involves outstanding parking invoices, and requesting payment through a link. Any real ticket from Denver can be verified through the city’s parking portal. Plus, all citations in Denver come by paper, either through a letter on a windshield or in the mail through the USPS.
Xcel Energy is another entity that is often impersonated, with the energy company dedicating an entire webpage to how customers can avoid scams.
“Scammers claiming to be from Xcel Energy are contacting our customers by phone, email and in person,” the utility provider says. “They are attempting to trick our customers into paying money with the threat of consequences (such as their power being turned off) if they do not comply.”
Xcel says to call Customer Service at 800-895-4999 or the company’s Business Solutions Center at 800-481-4700 to verify any charges. Even if the caller ID says Xcel Energy, the call may be illegitimate as scammers have learned to manipulate caller ID systems. If a customer’s power really is at risk of being turned off, Xcel will send that notice through the mail so any threat of an immediate power shutoff is likely a scam.
Other items to look out for, according to Xcel, are if the caller says you need to use a prepaid debit card, calls on nights and weekends, claims that customers overpaid and need to provide financial information to get a refund, or providing a fake account number that doesn’t actually match the customer’s information.
An emerging scam is one where the scammer uses blackmail to force people to send them cryptocurrency.
“What they'll do is they'll get some information about you that they can get through either public sources or dark web, and then say they've got sensitive information about you that they're going to release if you don't give them cryptocurrency,” Weiser says. “It's a scare tactic.”
People are often scared by the scammer having photos of their home, but Weiser’s office has found those images are often sourced from Google Maps.
Other top scams include auto-renewal scams, business and job opportunity scams, health insurance scams, immigration scams, subscription scams and timeshare scams, according to Stop Fraud Colorado, the AG’s fraud website,
“One big one is auto renewals, where people have a service that is renewed without them asking for it,” Weiser says. “Warranties are another issue that come up, where people are getting charged for warranties they don’t want. Even the difficulty to cancel services where someone signs up for a service and then it's very hard to cancel it, or they think they canceled but it doesn't get canceled, can be a problem.”
Employment scams targeting people returning from military service who are looking for new jobs are common; as are scams targeting people in debt, promising those debts can be settled while actually plunging people into further financial distress.
Health insurance scams rise during the fall when open enrollment occurs, as scammers know people are looking for more affordable options during that time. Immigration scams use people’s immigration status to get money by providing them with fake legal advice for a fee.
In all these cases, there are ways to avoid getting fooled.
How to Spot Scams and Protect Yourself
Weiser recommends checking Stop Fraud Colorado to see if the messages you've received reflect common scams identified by the AG’s office. Additionally, consumers can build a habit of not reacting quickly to prevent the loss of money to fraudsters. “Consumers are more vulnerable than ever because people can reach us through all these means,” Weiser says. “It's very important, whenever you get something that you're not quite sure about, don't respond right away.”
The USPS advises never clicking on links in emails or texts, especially if they contain alleged notices from your bank.
In all cases, double-checking with your bank, the government office or the utility company directly when asked for payment over the internet is important. Even if those entities call on the phone, calling them back through a verified number on the entity’s website is a good preventative measure.
“If you see a suspicious email, our advice is do not act on it, assume it's not legitimate, and then reach out to the organization and confirm that it's not legitimate,” Weiser says
Another way to identify a scam is if the person asks for payment in the form of cryptocurrency, a gift card or a money transfer app. According to Weiser, those payment methods are less protected than payments by credit card, so scammers usually attempt to receive funds by means other than credit.
Lastly, report any scams to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office so the AG can investigate, take action if warranted and warn other people about emerging scams.
“There are certainly scams and frauds that we don't hear about,” Weiser says. “This is on our minds. We're going to keep being vigilant about it.”
