Governments borrowing money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) often shift blame for unpopular reforms to the Fund, but few studies assess its effectiveness or the conditions under which blaming is effective. Governments under IMF programs may deflect responsibility by either actively shifting blame onto the IMF or by keeping a low profile on the issue and letting other actors in the public blame it. We test the scapegoating hypothesis by employing a survey experiment in Pakistan in June 2023, which constitutes a favorable setting for scapegoating. We find no evidence that government or civil society actors scapegoating the IMF is an effective strategy deflecting responsibility to the Fund. This surprising non-finding underlines the need for future research into IMF blame games. The paper suggests furthering this research agenda by exploring the blame-shifting efficacy of different senders and further work on the interactive and dynamic nature of IMF blame games.