A demand for money by phone is not part of North Carolina’s domestic-violence protective-order process. State law generally bars courts from assessing costs or attorneys’ fees for filing, issuing, registering or serving a protective order or related petition, with a limited Rule 11 exception, according to North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 50B.
That legal safeguard is central to a new warning from Attorney General Jeff Jackson: scammers are impersonating law-enforcement officers, court officials and electronic-monitoring representatives to target domestic-violence survivors and relatives of people arrested in such cases. The North Carolina Department of Justice says callers have demanded supposed bond, monitoring or other payments and used personal details to make the calls sound authentic. The warning was also reported by the Raleigh News & Observer.
What officials say to do
Jackson’s guidance is simple: do not pay, end the call and contact law enforcement through a phone number found independently. The North Carolina Department of Justice says legitimate law-enforcement agencies and district attorneys will not call survivors to demand money to file or dismiss a case, post bond for an alleged abuser or cover a release-related fee. The agency’s warning is available at its official website.
The reported North Carolina schemes have included claims that a prosecutor would drop charges if money were sent, that electronic monitoring had to be paid for before release, or that an alleged abuser could be released because of a jail-supply problem. The News & Observer reported that the calls can arrive soon after an arrest and may use real officers’ names or information drawn from court and investigative records. Those details describe reported tactics, not proof that every case follows the same pattern.
Why caller ID is not verification
A familiar number does not establish that a call is genuine. The FBI Philadelphia Field Office warns that impersonators can spoof caller ID so a fraudulent call appears to come from a legitimate agency. The FBI places these calls in a broader pattern of schemes in which impostors pose as law-enforcement or government officials to extort money or obtain personal information.
That national pattern provides context, but it does not measure the prevalence of the North Carolina survivor-targeting scheme. The Federal Trade Commission reported that people lost $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, while noting that such aggregate figures do not specifically measure scams aimed at domestic-violence survivors, according to the FTC.
What remains unclear
Officials have not publicly established how callers are assembling victims’ names, case details and contact information so quickly. The News & Observer reported that advocates are considering whether publicly available court information or other records could help scammers identify potential targets, but that remains an open question rather than a confirmed explanation for any individual call.
For survivors, the practical test is the payment demand itself. A caller who creates urgency, invokes an arrest or protective order and insists on immediate payment should be treated as fraudulent until independently verified. Hang up, avoid replying through the caller’s number or payment instructions, and contact a local law-enforcement agency or victim-service provider directly.
