Calling all immigrants! Have you received a call from someone claiming to be an “U.S. immigration officer” who asked for money for a family member bond hearing perhaps? Then read on.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning immigrants to be extra aware as scammers pretending to be from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are calling or sending out emails to trick them into giving up money or personal information.
Here’s how this immigration scam often goes, according to the FTC. An immigrant gets a call or email saying they’ve violated the U.S. immigration law; that their identity information is wrong or out of date; or that they owe fees or need to pay an immigration bond.
The scammers, all the time pretending to be an U.S. immigration officer calling from USCIS or ICE, will threaten to alert the police or to have you deported if you don’t give them the information they want. Fueled by fear and desperation, many poor immigrants, many of them with families seeking asylum in the U.S. and who are locked away by the tens of thousands each year as their cases proceed, fall for the scam, as they desperately want to see them released and to be reunited.
The scammers will also tell you not to talk to anyone else about it—which means you can’t double-check their story and find out it’s nothing but a SCAM. This is similar to scammers pretending to be calling you from government agencies like…
