How scammers lure money from immigrants by pretending to be ICE agents

In the US, scammers have appeared who appear to be agents of immigration and customs control (ICE), threaten arrest and deportation of migrants and extort money from them, writes Newsweek.

Фото: Depositphotos

The fraudsters worked according to the following scheme: they phoned random victims (they did not collect any preliminary information about them), presenting themselves to the local police officer who wants to warn about the impending detention by ICE officers. The purpose of the calls was to identify migrants who are afraid of deportation or who have had problems with immigration authorities in the past.

Then they tried to scare the victim to pay thousands of dollars in exchange for stopping the alleged persecution. The fraudsters used the ICE official website and the documents published there, as well as forged the number from which they called, so that the victim had the impression that he was being called from a government agency.

Recently, Twich Kitboga, a popular streamer (it does not disclose its name to avoid retaliation from fraudsters), suddenly discovered how the scam works. In his video, he showed how this is done.

Kitboga specializes in framing scams and making videos about how fraudulent schemes work.

“The police sirens and how long they played the game was unlike anything I've seen in the last two years. Someone clearly wanted to come up with a convincing scam,” says Kitboga.

Kitboga's number was not on the list of fraudsters, but he provoked them to start a conversation, introducing himself as an 87-year-old Eastern European grandmother named Vika Lika. As a result, a certain “officer Michel” got in touch with her grandmother, who after a series of threats reported that she had discovered a problem with registration documents, and that ICE had suspicions that Vicki’s relatives were connected with money laundering and terrorism.

Called some scammers pretending to be with the immigration department. They are playing a police siren while claiming to be an "officer" coming to arrest me. Disgusting. pic.twitter.com/KMdcdwactJ

- Kitboga (@Kitboga) April 3, 2019

Then the scammer sent his grandmother to the ICE website and forced him to read the agency’s contact details. "Grandma" burst into tears. But the caller was relentless.

“You will stop crying like a baby! Crying won't help you. Crying is not a solution to the problem,” the “officer” shouted.

Under the guise of “verification,” the scammers demanded personal information, asking if Kitboga had assets in the United States, which banks the “victim” was with, as well as credit card information and home address.

“If you lie to us, it could bring you big trouble,” they told the “grandmother.”

The scammers then called a second time from a second “law enforcement officer.” To convince the “victim” of the veracity of their words, the scammers used recordings of siren sounds to prove that the “law enforcement officer” was in the patrol car.

“Are you aware that there is an arrest warrant out in your name from the Santa Monica, California Police Department? Why don't you answer my calls? I was going to arrest you. I'll give you 10 minutes... talk to the immigration officers, they're the only ones who can save you now, you know? If I don’t receive a letter from Immigration saying they are helping you, I will be forced to arrest you,” the fake patrolman said.

After this call, the “grandmother” was called back by the fake ICE agent.

“It's sad how they treat people. You have to be without a heart to do something like that. They just don’t care,” Kitboga commented on what was happening.

Two hours later, the scammers returned again and began extorting money. They forced the victim to go back to the ICE website and read the Immigration Bond form, which is typically used to release someone who has been detained. The scammers demanded $2 from the “grandmother” to stop the investigation. As a bonus, they promised that Vicki Leakey would receive compensation in the amount of $999 thousand if she was found innocent.

“This is similar to how people who claim to work for the Social Security Administration act, which I have encountered several times. After they have scared you into believing that they are real officers, they want to get all your bank and credit card details, as well as personal information, so that you will pay some kind of fee to “protect your funds on your social card” or “stop the investigation.” This commission will then be returned once everything is over. If someone is afraid of being deported or has had problems in the past, then such a scam can sound very convincing,” says Kitboga.

In 2017, New York's executive secretary has issued a statement, preventing immigrants from people who depict themselves as ICE agents and need money, and have fun and funded funds. He said that their office received a series of messages about strange calls from people posing as agency employees.

“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will never ask for payment over the phone, so immigrants should be wary of scammers who ask for any sensitive or personal information, demand payment and threaten deportation,” - the prosecutor general said in 2017.

It remains unknown how much money was stolen by such scammers and how many victims were deceived.

It took two and a half hours after fraudsters received information from the blogger, before they tried to get access to Kitboga fake accounts, and then the scam began to fall apart.

Then they changed the line of conduct and began to say that the “grandmother” was no longer wanted, but they could still arrest her. The fraudsters tried several times to get to Kitboga accounts without success. Three hours and five minutes passed before they realized that they had failed, and “Officer Michelle” said: “Damn it,” and hung up the phone, left with nothing.

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