Federal Prison News · Scams and Fraud
Somebody Called Saying They Could Get My Husband Out for a Fee. Is It a Scam?
The call usually comes in the evening. The man on the phone knows your husband's name. He may know the prison. He sounds official and a little impatient, like he is doing you a favor by calling at all. He says there is a program, or a placement, or a slot that just opened — and there is a fee, and it has to be paid tonight, by CashApp or gift card, or the slot goes to somebody else.
You have been waiting months for good news. This sounds like good news.
It is almost certainly a scam. Here is how to be sure, what to do tonight, and what actually moves a release date.
The short answer
The Bureau of Prisons has said it plainly: "The FBOP will not contact individuals to request personal information or money." In its notice of April 9, 2025, BOP warned that callers were "identifying as 'Federal Bureau of Prisons Reentry Division Services'" and seeking money for "early release and/or community placement services."
Federal courts have put out the same warning. A notice posted by a federal district court says it plainly: "A phone scam is targeting people in custody and their families. Callers pretend to be employees of the U.S. Probation Office, U.S. Parole Commission, and Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)." The callers in that alert promised to "get individuals out of BOP custody" and to "end supervised release."
If that sounds like your call, it is the scam. Not a version of it. It.
Why nobody can sell you an early release
There are exactly three things that move a federal release date, and not one of them has a price.
1. Good conduct time. Up to 54 days of credit per year of the sentence the judge imposed, decided by BOP on whether he has "displayed exemplary compliance with institutional disciplinary regulations" (18 U.S.C. § 3624(b)(1)). Staying out of trouble earns it. Money does not.
2. First Step Act time credits. 10 days of credit for every 30 days of successful participation in approved programming, plus 5 more per 30 if BOP rates him minimum or low risk across two consecutive assessments (18 U.S.C. § 3632(d)(4)(A)). Earned by showing up to the class, not bought.
3. Prerelease custody — halfway house and home confinement. BOP can place him in home confinement for the shorter of 10 percent of his term or 6 months (18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(2)), and time credits can move him into prerelease custody or start supervised release up to 12 months early (18 U.S.C. § 3624(g)). BOP decisions, made on his record.
And the one thing that is not BOP's to give: a judge cutting the sentence itself. The statute is blunt — "The court may not modify a term of imprisonment once it has been imposed except that—" followed by narrow exceptions, including a compassionate release motion once he has exhausted his administrative rights or 30 days have passed since the warden got his request (18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)). That happens on a public docket, by written motion, in front of a judge. Not because somebody took a gift-card number over the phone.
There is no window. There is no slot. There is no fee.
Five questions that end the call in sixty seconds
Ask these out loud. A real official will not mind. A scammer will get angry or hang up.
- "What is your full name, your title, and your desk number? I am going to call the institution back and ask for you."
- "Send it to me in writing on letterhead and I will read it."
- "You want me to pay by CashApp, gift card, Zelle or wire, correct?" No federal agency collects money that way.
- "What is the case number and which court?" If he claims a judge is involved, there is a docket. Call that court's clerk's office and ask whether anything was filed. That call is free.
- "Is my husband on the line?" Then hang up and wait for his next call. He can tell you in thirty seconds whether any of this is real.
Do not give his register number, your Social Security number, your date of birth, or your bank information to "confirm" anything. The confirmation is the theft.
What to do today
If you have not paid yet: don't. Hang up. Write down the phone number, the time, the name he gave, and what he asked for, while it is fresh.
If you already paid: move fast, but know this is hard to reverse and nobody can promise you get it back.
- Call your bank or card company now and say the words "this was a fraud, I want to dispute it and stop any further transfers."
- If you used CashApp, Zelle, Venmo or a gift card, report it in the app immediately and keep every screenshot.
- Report it to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov or 1-877-382-4357 — the number both BOP and the federal courts point families to.
- Pay nobody who calls afterward offering "to help you recover it." That second call is the same people.
Either way, tell him. Scammers work the inside and the outside of the same family at once.
What to do this week
If the call planted a real question — is he eligible for home confinement, are his credits being counted — chase the answer for free instead of paying for a fake one.
- Have him ask his case manager for a printed copy of his sentence computation and his FSA time-credit assessment. That is the paper showing what BOP actually has him down for.
- The rules that govern the count are public: he begins earning only after his term of imprisonment commences (28 C.F.R. § 523.42(a)), the Bureau decides what counts as successful participation (28 C.F.R. § 523.41(c)), and applying earned credits toward prerelease custody or supervised release is a separate step with its own conditions (28 C.F.R. § 523.44). Ask for the paperwork against those rules, not against what somebody said in a hallway.
- If the numbers look wrong, the fix is the Administrative Remedy Program — the remedy actually available to him from inside — not a payment. He files a BP-9 with the warden within 20 calendar days of what he is complaining about (28 C.F.R. § 542.14(a)); then a BP-10 to the Regional Director within 20 days and a BP-11 to General Counsel within 30 days (28 C.F.R. § 542.15(a)). Staff must answer within 20, 30 and 40 days respectively — and if no answer comes in time, "the inmate may consider the absence of a response to be a denial at that level" (28 C.F.R. § 542.18).
- Keep a copy of every form. The copies are what make the next step possible.
One more thing, because it is the exact opposite of what a scammer tells you. Where a person is diagnosed with a terminal illness, or is physically or mentally unable to file for himself, federal law requires BOP to tell his family they may prepare and submit a sentence-reduction request on his behalf — and to have BOP employees help him draft and submit it (18 U.S.C. § 3582(d)(2)). Free. Nobody has to be hired for that door to open.
What to stop worrying about
That you missed a real chance. You did not. Nothing that moves a federal release date is offered by cold call, sold for a fee, or expires tonight.
That reporting it will hurt him. Reporting a fraud to the FTC or your bank is not a complaint against the prison and does not touch his record.
That you should have known. These callers are professionals working a list of families who are frightened and waiting. In United States v. Kieffer, 681 F.3d 1143 (10th Cir. 2012), a man ran what looked like a nationwide federal criminal defense practice for years — websites, conferences, admission to federal courts around the country — and as the Tenth Circuit put it, "He is not and never has been an attorney. He never went to law school, never sat for a bar exam, and never received a license to practice law." Federal judges were fooled. You are not foolish for taking a phone call seriously.
Where this came from
Every rule above is from the statute, regulation or opinion itself: 18 U.S.C. §§ 3582(c), 3582(d), 3624(b), 3624(c), 3624(g), 3632(d)(4); 28 C.F.R. §§ 523.41, 523.42, 523.44, 542.14, 542.15, 542.18; United States v. Kieffer, 681 F.3d 1143 (10th Cir. 2012). The scam quotes are from the Bureau of Prisons' phone-scam notice of April 9, 2025 and from a phone-scam warning posted by a federal district court.
The First 72 Hours
We put the whole checklist in one place — what to write down when a call like this comes in, the records and computations to ask for, the letters you can copy, and the order to do it in. It is free and it comes by email, so you have it on your phone the next time that number shows up.
Send me the First 72 Hours guide →
If you would rather just talk to a person, call 786-408-5073 and ask for Charles Christopher. If it is the middle of the night, send the email instead and it will be read in the morning.
Prisoner Legal Aid prepares documents, requests records, explains deadlines, and connects families with independent civil rights attorneys, under the oversight of a licensed attorney. Nobody can tell you how this ends, and there is no charge for asking. What we can do is help you check, on paper, whether the thing that stranger was selling you is something he already has coming to him for free.
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