What Happened
On June 16, 2026, the FCC announced the "Never, Ever" campaign as part of a broader Elder Justice Coordinating Council initiative to combat government and business imposter scams. The campaign is built on a simple principle: The government will "never, ever" call you asking for money, threatening arrest, or demanding personal information over the phone.
The campaign specifically highlighted that the FCC itself has never, ever called a consumer demanding payment via payment apps, cryptocurrency, gift cards, or wire transfers. Scammers impersonating the FCC do exactly that.
The timing is important. In 2025, Americans reported losing $3.5 billion to imposter scams—nearly triple the losses from 2020. Imposter scams are now the most-reported fraud category in the United States. Bank impersonators took $1 billion. Government impersonators took $920 million.
The FCC, under Chairman Carr's leadership, announced it is holding telecommunications providers accountable for failing to block or identify scam calls. The agency has already taken enforcement action against carriers that "turned a blind eye to scammers impersonating government agencies, internet service providers, banks, and major retailers."
Why This Matters
This campaign exists because we have reached the point where it apparently needs to exist. Americans lost more than a third of a billion dollars last year to people calling and pretending to be government officials. Enough people believed the government would threaten them with arrest over the phone for something they didn't do, that scammers built an entire business model on it.
The genius of an imposter scam is that it weaponizes the authority and fear people associate with government. When someone calls and says "This is the IRS and you owe taxes and we're coming to arrest you," many victims don't think "this is obviously a scam." They think "oh god, what did I forget to file?"
The fact that this requires a national awareness campaign in 2026 is itself a stupid moment. But the fact that we've gotten here is not dumb—it's a sign that the underlying problem (telecommunications carriers not filtering obvious fraud, elderly Americans isolated and vulnerable, deep economic anxiety that makes people believe the worst quickly) is real and serious.
The Dumb Part With The Simple Rules
The dumb part is that the fundamental rules for spotting a government imposter are so simple and so obvious, yet so widely ignored by scam victims:
- The government will never call and threaten arrest if you don't pay immediately.
- The government will never demand payment via payment app, cryptocurrency, gift card, or wire transfer.
- Real law enforcement will never call and say "hang up now or we'll arrest you when we arrive."
- Courts demand payment in person or through official channels, never by phone.
These are not complex distinctions. Yet they need a national awareness campaign. Why? Because vulnerable people are scared, scammers are sophisticated, and the cognitive load of fear makes people do things they otherwise wouldn't.
The Bottom Line
The FCC's "Never, Ever" campaign is necessary not because the rules are unclear, but because the execution of scams has become so targeted and convincing that clarity itself is a public good. Scammers now:
- Spoof official phone numbers
- Use publicly available personal information to build credibility
- Create artificial urgency and fear
- Provide false "official documents" via email and text
- Work in networks, with one scammer building the relationship and another "closing" the victim
In that environment, telling people "the government will never call asking for payment" is not trivial. It's a necessary reminder. The real stupid shit is that we've built an economy where so many people are one call away from believing it, and so many carriers are indifferent to which calls go through.
Sources
FCC: Stopping Scam Calls Starts with "Never, Ever"
FCC: How to Spot FCC Imposters
Elder Justice Coordinating Council: "Never, Ever" Campaign