How to Become a Paid Confidential Informant: Pay, Rules, and Risks

To become a paid confidential informant, you bring specific, verifiable knowledge of criminal activity to the law enforcement agency that handles that type of crime, pass a background check and vetting interview, and sign a written cooperation agreement that spells out what you’ll do and what you’ll be paid. Compensation ranges from modest cash for local drug tips to six- and seven-figure awards under federal reward programs. Most people who contact law enforcement never become registered informants, and those who do work under strict rules with real personal risk.

What Kind of Information Gets You Paid

Agencies want intelligence they can act on. Vague claims about suspicious behavior rarely go anywhere. What gets attention is specific, verifiable detail: names, locations, dates, quantities, methods, and how a criminal organization is structured. The most valuable informants have firsthand access to networks involved in drug trafficking, organized crime, fraud, weapons offenses, or terrorism financing.

You do not need to be a criminal yourself, but agencies are realistic about where good intelligence comes from. People with existing ties to criminal circles, including those on probation or with prior convictions, often have access outside observers never will. Beyond the quality of the information, handlers evaluate whether you can sustain access over time. A one-time tip is useful, but a registered informant who can keep feeding intelligence over weeks or months is far more valuable. They also weigh your personal stability, reliability, and motivation. Someone driven by a grudge raises different concerns than someone who stumbled into knowledge of a drug pipeline and wants to act on it.

Which Agency to Contact

The right agency depends on the type of crime. Local police handle street-level activity and are the most accessible starting point. For federal crimes or large-scale operations, go directly to the relevant federal agency.

FBI: organized crime, terrorism, cybercrime, public corruption, and major fraud. Submit tips at tips.fbi.gov, contact a local field office, or call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).¹
DEA: drug trafficking and controlled substance violations. Submit tips online or call 1-877-792-2873.²
ATF: illegal firearms, explosives, and arson. Call 1-888-ATF-TIPS (1-888-283-8477) or email ATFTips@atf.gov.³
IRS Whistleblower Office: tax fraud and evasion, with structured percentage-based awards.

You can submit a tip anonymously, but leaving contact details lets investigators follow up. An anonymous tip that agents cannot clarify often dies on the desk. If you want to become a registered, paid informant rather than a one-time tipster, you will eventually have to identify yourself during vetting.

What Happens After You Make Contact

Submitting a tip does not make you an informant. If your information looks promising, a case agent will meet with you, usually more than once, to evaluate the intelligence and you personally. Expect a comprehensive background check covering criminal history, finances, and personal associations. Inside the FBI, an agent has to document each potential source and forward the file to a supervisor for an initial validation determination.⁴

Handlers assess your motivations carefully. A polygraph may be part of the credibility assessment. They are also gauging whether working with you could expose the agency to liability, compromise other investigations, or put you in danger you cannot handle. Every FBI confidential human source undergoes a formal validation process, and each source’s file must be reviewed at least annually after registration. Sources with access to privileged information or connections to senior government officials need additional written approval from Department of Justice attorneys.⁴

The Written Agreement

Pass vetting and the relationship gets formalized in writing. The document sets out what you’re expected to do, what the agency commits to, and the boundaries you cannot cross. Federal guidelines require that these instructions be reviewed with you in the presence of at least one witness.⁴ If you are on probation or supervised release, the agreement also has to define modified supervision conditions and coordinate between the probation office, the prosecutor, and the case agent.⁵

One point that catches people off guard: your handler cannot promise you immunity from prosecution, reduced charges, or leniency in sentencing. Those decisions belong to prosecutors and courts. The FBI’s own guidelines include an explicit prohibition on immunity commitments by agents.⁴ An agent may advocate for favorable treatment based on your cooperation, but nothing is guaranteed until a prosecutor puts it in writing.

This is why talking to a criminal defense attorney before signing is worth the money. The agreement creates real obligations for you and limited ones for the agency. An attorney can explain what you’re actually committing to, what protections you lack, and whether any verbal promises made during recruitment are reflected in the document.

How Compensation Works

Payment structures vary by agency and case. The main drivers are the seriousness of the crime, where the targets sit within the organization, whether your information leads to arrests or seizures, and how much personal risk you carry. Some informants receive a lump sum after an investigation concludes. Others get staggered payments tied to milestones. Where the danger is extreme, compensation can include relocation expenses for you and your family.

You are not an agency employee. There are no benefits, no health insurance, and no workers’ compensation through the informant relationship. A 2015 DOJ Inspector General report did find that the DEA had been providing Federal Employees’ Compensation Act benefits to some confidential sources without a proper review process, paying roughly $1 million to 17 sources or their dependents in a single year, but the report flagged this as a policy failure rather than standard practice.⁶

Payments leave a paper trail. Federal financial guidelines require the case agent to obtain a receipt for any cash payment, with a witness signature from another officer.⁷

Government agencies that pay informants are not required to issue a 1099 for those payments. IRS instructions specifically exempt award, fee, or reward payments made by federal, state, or local agencies to informers for information about criminal activity.⁸ That exemption applies to the agency’s filing obligation, not to your own tax return. Ask a tax professional what you need to report.

Federal Reward Programs That Pay More

Case-by-case informant payments are one path. Structured reward programs are another, and the numbers can be much larger.

IRS Whistleblower Awards

If you have information about a taxpayer who owes $2 million or more in taxes, penalties, and interest, the IRS Whistleblower Office can pay between 15 and 30 percent of what the government collects based on your information. The percentage depends on how much you contributed to the case. If the action was based mostly on information already publicly available and your role was secondary, the award drops to a maximum of 10 percent.⁹

Customs Informant Awards

Anyone who is not a government employee can receive up to 25 percent of the net recovery for detecting and reporting customs fraud, or for providing original information about customs or navigation law violations. The total award is capped at $250,000 per case.¹⁰

Narcotics Rewards Program

The State Department’s Narcotics Rewards Program targets major international drug traffickers who violate U.S. narcotics laws. The Secretary of State can offer rewards up to $25 million for information leading to arrest or conviction. Government employees are not eligible.¹¹

What You Cannot Do

Working as an informant does not license you to commit crimes. The Attorney General’s Guidelines draw a sharp line between authorized and unauthorized illegal activity, and crossing it can end your status and put you in prison.

Sometimes an informant has to participate in illegal conduct to keep credibility inside a criminal organization or to gather essential evidence. Federal guidelines set two tiers. Tier 1 covers the most serious activity: anything involving violence or significant risk of violence, corruption of public officials, large-scale drug trafficking, major financial losses, or providing weapons or controlled substances to others. Tier 1 activity requires advance written authorization from both an FBI Special Agent in Charge and a federal prosecutor, with a maximum authorization period of 90 days. Tier 2 covers less serious criminal conduct and requires written authorization from the Special Agent in Charge alone, also for up to 90 days. In both cases, the authorizing officials must document a finding that the illegal activity is necessary to obtain information not reasonably available any other way.⁴

Engage in criminal conduct that was never authorized and the agency must immediately revoke your authorization, report the activity, and decide whether to terminate you as an informant.¹² Going freelance is the fastest way to lose your status and face prosecution.

You also cannot entrap targets. There is a difference between giving someone an opportunity to commit a crime they were already inclined to commit and pressuring or inducing someone into criminal conduct they would not otherwise have engaged in. If a court later finds entrapment, the case collapses and your own legal exposure can grow.

How Well Your Identity Is Protected

Informant identity carries significant legal protection, but not absolute protection. The Supreme Court recognized in Roviaro v. United States a government privilege to withhold informant identities to encourage cooperation with law enforcement. The logic is that people will not come forward if they think their names will end up in the hands of the people they informed on.

That privilege holds while you are a “mere tipster” whose information launched an investigation but who played no direct role in the criminal conduct at issue. Protection weakens when you were an active participant. When your testimony could be relevant to the defense, or when disclosure is essential to a fair trial, a court can order the government to reveal your identity. If the government refuses, the court can dismiss the case.

In practical terms, your identity is most secure in cases that never go to trial or where your tip only launched an independent investigation. It is least secure when you were embedded in the activity, made controlled purchases, or would be a primary witness. Defense attorneys push for disclosure when they suspect an informant was involved, and judges balance the government’s interest in protecting you against the defendant’s constitutional rights case by case.

In the most dangerous cases, federal law allows the Attorney General to relocate informants and witnesses under the Witness Security Program, providing new identity documents and housing when serious offenses generate a credible threat of violent retaliation.¹³ Admission is not automatic and participation is always voluntary.

The Risks Before You Commit

Physical danger is the obvious one. If your role becomes known to the people you’re informing on, retaliation can be swift and severe. People have been killed after their identities as informants surfaced, including young people who were pressured into cooperating and lacked the experience to manage the risks. The agency’s interest in your safety is genuine but secondary to the investigation, and it helps to be clear-eyed about that.

Legal exposure is the second concern. The cooperation agreement does not make you immune from prosecution. Commit crimes outside what was authorized and you face the same consequences as anyone else. Even authorized conduct can get complicated if the investigation goes sideways or your handler’s informal assurances about favorable treatment never materialize in the prosecutor’s office. A DOJ Inspector General report found that the DEA’s oversight of its own informant program had serious gaps, including inadequate review of long-term sources and weak controls over authorized criminal activity.⁶

The quieter cost is personal. Living a double life, keeping lies straight inside your social circle, and carrying the stress of possible exposure takes a psychological toll most people underestimate going in. If you have a family, the risk extends to them. Talk to a lawyer before you commit. Understand what protections you actually have, what you’re giving up, and what happens if the relationship falls apart. Once you’re in, this decision is hard to reverse.

1
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Contact Us
2
Drug Enforcement Administration. Contact Us
3
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Submit a Tip
4
U.S. Department of Justice. AG Guidelines FBI Confidential Human Sources
5
United States Courts. Chapter 2 – Acting as Confidential Human Source Informant
6
U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. DOJ OIG Report on DEA Confidential Source Program
7
Office of Justice Programs. Financial Guide Part III Chapter 8 – Confidential Funds
8
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC
9
GovInfo. 26 USC 7623 – Expenses of Detection of Underpayments and Fraud
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 19 USC 1619 – Award of Compensation to Informers
11
U.S. Department of State. Narcotics Rewards Program
12
Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. The Attorney General’s Guidelines Regarding the Use of Confidential Informants
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3521 – Witness Relocation and Protection