Officers at the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) department in Texas have issued a warning about a new phone scam.
Danger actors carrying out the malicious marketing campaign have been impersonating particular brokers at the San Antonio HSI to contact up members of the community.
Victims are advised that a issue has been detected with their passport. They are then threatened with arrest by the imposter agent except if they make a payment to the HSI.
“The scammers assert the passport is associated in some variety of criminal offense and threaten the caller by indicating police will be dispatched to their dwelling to arrest them,” stated officers at the San Antonio ICE in a fraud warning issued November 4.
The fraudsters have discovered a way to make it appear to the victim that the get in touch with they are receiving is coming from the HSI San Antonio major phone variety, 210-979-4500.
“HSI distinctive agents and neighborhood police do not call people on the phone to alert them they are about to be arrested,” claimed HSI officers.
“Agents neither ask for money data, this sort of as financial institution account and credit rating card account information, nor desire income from somebody to dismiss an investigation or get rid of an arrest warrant.”
Users of the public who get a threatening call or concept from the spoofed HSI main line number are suggested not to give out any particular or monetary data and to stop the discussion straight away if threats and intimidation persist.
HSI additional that people who are specific by the scammers can enable law enforcement to capture the criminals by hoping to obtain make contact with information and facts from the caller and reporting it to the anonymous ICE tip line, 1 (866) 347-2423 or completing the on the web tip form.
In July, ICE officials in Virginia warned international students that its phone quantity was remaining spoofed to trick men and women researching in the United States on university student visas into generating fraudulent payments and giving out delicate personalized details.
The scammers powering that marketing campaign requested global college students for payments in Bitcoin, a forex not accepted by the federal govt.
Some parts of this article are sourced from:
www.infosecurity-journal.com