Bexar County Couple Loses $160 to Scammer Posing as County Employee

Bexar County officials are warning residents after a local couple was scammed out of $160 by someone falsely claiming to be a county employee.

According to a statement from the county, the caller contacted the couple and offered to fill out a government assistance application on their behalf — in exchange for money. The couple paid. The service, of course, was never real.

What County Employees Actually Do

Bexar County was unambiguous in its response: county employees do not fill out applications for residents, and they never charge fees for paperwork assistance. Any caller offering to do so is running a scam.

Legitimate government assistance programs are free to apply for. No county, state, or federal employee will ever contact you unsolicited and request payment to process an application.

How This Scam Works

This type of scam exploits people who are already in a vulnerable situation — those seeking financial assistance. The script is simple:

1. Scammer calls claiming to be a government employee
2. Offers to handle a complicated-sounding application process for you
3. Requests an upfront “processing fee” or “service charge”
4. Takes the money and disappears

The fee is often small enough that victims don’t immediately report it — but the scam likely targets many people, and the losses add up.

What makes this variation particularly cynical is the target profile. People applying for government assistance are, by definition, under financial stress. Scammers are deliberately choosing to exploit the most financially vulnerable members of a community.

The Bigger Picture: Government Impersonation Is a $789 Million Problem

The Bexar County incident is a small-dollar example of one of the fastest-growing fraud categories in the country. According to FTC data, Americans lost $789 million to government imposter scams in 2024 — a staggering 361% increase from the $171 million lost in 2023. That makes government impersonation fraud the second-most costly scam category overall, behind only investment fraud.

The $1,500 median loss for government impersonation victims is four times higher than most other fraud types. The Bexar County scam falls below that median — which is consistent with how these smaller-scale local operations tend to work. They keep the ask modest, stay under the radar, and cast a wide net.

The playbook is consistent whether the scammer is asking for $160 or $16,000: manufacture a reason why you need to pay a government-connected fee right now, and collect before the victim has time to verify.

For more on how this category of fraud has grown, see our full breakdown: The $789 Million Government Imposter Explosion.

Why This Scam Works on Smart, Careful People

Government impersonation scams succeed because they exploit psychological responses that are difficult to override.

Authority bias. When someone presents themselves as a government employee — even over the phone — our default response is respect and compliance. We’re socialized to treat government representatives as legitimate authorities, and scammers know it.

Complexity theater. Government applications often are complicated. If someone calls and says “this paperwork is confusing, let me handle it for you,” that offer is plausible. People who have dealt with actual bureaucratic processes know how frustrating they can be. The scammer is offering to solve a real pain point — for a small fee.

Low-stakes framing. At $160, many victims don’t immediately report the loss. That’s the point. A $160 scam on 100 people generates $16,000 with minimal exposure. A $16,000 ask on one person generates the same but draws far more scrutiny and law enforcement attention.

Desperation and urgency. People seeking assistance are often under genuine pressure. The combination of financial stress and someone offering a quick solution creates an opening that skilled scammers know how to exploit.

What the Data Shows About Vulnerable Targets

Government impersonation scams disproportionately target people who have meaningful interactions with government programs: seniors relying on Social Security and Medicare, low-income households applying for assistance, and immigrants navigating complex bureaucratic systems. FTC data consistently shows that older adults lose the most money per incident — in one regional analysis, adults in their 70s had the highest total losses from government imposter scams despite not necessarily being the most frequently targeted age group.

The pattern in Bexar County fits a documented national trend: scammers increasingly identify people who are likely to be in contact with government programs and approach them with offers that seem to solve a real problem. The Bexar County couple wasn’t being careless — they were responding to what seemed like a useful offer from someone claiming government affiliation.

Red Flags to Watch For

• Unsolicited calls from someone claiming to work for the county or a government agency
• Offers to handle government paperwork on your behalf
• Any request for payment before services are rendered
• Pressure to pay quickly or over the phone
• No official documentation, letter, or way to verify the caller’s identity
• Requests for cash, gift cards, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency

One of the clearest signals that something is wrong: legitimate government employees and programs will never ask you to pay a fee to receive a benefit you’re entitled to. Application assistance, when it exists, is always free.

Verifying Legitimate Assistance Programs

If you’re looking for government assistance in Bexar County, the correct approach is to go directly to official sources:

• Visit bexar.org directly to find information on available programs
• Call the county’s main number from their official website — not from a number given to you by an unsolicited caller
• For state programs, visit the Texas Health and Human Services website at hhs.texas.gov
• For federal programs, use benefits.gov to find programs you may qualify for

There are also legitimate nonprofit organizations that assist people with completing government applications at no cost. If you’re unsure whether an organization is legitimate, ask for their name, look them up independently, and verify their status before sharing any personal information or making any payments.

What to Do If You’ve Been Targeted

If you received a suspicious call: Hang up. Do not pay. Contact Bexar County directly through official channels to report the call and to verify any assistance programs you’re interested in.

If you already paid: Report the scam to your local law enforcement and to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. If you paid by credit card, contact your card issuer immediately to dispute the charge. If you paid by gift card or wire transfer, recovery is far more difficult but still worth reporting.

Document everything: Write down what the caller said, what number appeared on your caller ID, when the call happened, and how much was paid. This information helps law enforcement identify patterns and, in some cases, track down the operators.

How to Protect Yourself

• Never pay an application fee for a government benefit program — all legitimate programs are free to apply for
• Verify before you engage — look up any government program on official .gov websites before responding to an unsolicited contact
• Call back using official numbers — if you receive an unexpected call from a supposed government employee, hang up and call the agency back using a number from their official website
• Talk to someone you trust before sending money to anyone claiming to represent a government program
• Know where to find help — reputable nonprofit organizations, local legal aid offices, and public libraries often offer free assistance with government applications

Related reading: Government Impersonation Scams: How to Spot and Avoid Fraudsters

What Happens After You Report

Reporting matters even when individual dollar amounts are modest. Law enforcement agencies identify scam operations by pattern — a $160 loss might not trigger an investigation on its own, but fifty reports of $160 losses all pointing to the same phone number, the same script, or the same area code creates an actionable lead.

The FTC’s fraud reporting system (ReportFraud.ftc.gov) aggregates reports across the country and makes that data available to law enforcement. Many successful prosecutions of phone scam operations have traced back to clusters of consumer reports. Filing a report — even after a small loss — is a meaningful contribution to stopping the operation from reaching more victims.

The same logic applies to local reporting. When Bexar County officials issued this warning, it was likely triggered by a cluster of complaints reaching the county. Every person who calls the county to report the scam makes it more likely that law enforcement can identify and disrupt the operation.

The Broader Ecosystem of Assistance Fraud

The Bexar County scam sits at the intersection of two larger trends: the growth of government impersonation fraud overall, and the increasing targeting of vulnerable populations by scammers who research likely candidates before making contact.

Data from the FTC shows that government imposter scam losses have nearly quintupled in two years. As awareness of classic IRS and Social Security scams has grown, operators have diversified. County assistance scams, Medicaid enrollment fraud, housing assistance schemes, and utility program impersonation are all variants of the same underlying model — fake authority, a service you actually need, a fee to receive it.

People applying for government assistance are an attractive target pool for another reason: they often have limited resources and significant financial stress. A $160 loss to someone already seeking financial help represents a disproportionate harm. Scammers operate without any consideration of the impact — they’re looking for conversion rate, not sympathy.

Understanding the scale of this problem is the first step toward recognizing it. See our full analysis of how government imposter fraud has grown: The $789 Million Government Imposter Explosion.

For information on legitimate Bexar County assistance programs, visit the official Bexar County website.

Report scam activity at ScamWatch HQ. For fraud reports, contact the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.