The FBI is warning South Florida residents of a phone scam in which callers identify themselves as federal officers and con their targets out of money.
The scammers typically instruct people to wire or mail “settlement” money or to assist law enforcement with an investigation against a bank, according to the FBI’s Miami office.
The calls are fraudulent, and anyone who receives them should hang up immediately, bureau officials said.
Federal agencies do not call or e-mail people threatening them to send money or to use their own money as ‘bait’ for a federal investigation, the FBI said in a written announcement.
“Criminals use law enforcement impersonation scams as a means of confusing and unnerving their intended victims in order to get them to act rashly,” said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Michael Brown. “If you receive one of these calls, hang up, and report the incident to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3.GOV). In the 2024 IC3 report released this week, Florida residents reported 1,579 impersonation scams with an estimated loss of over $12 million.”
A scam phone call may seem legitimate because scammers can spoof caller ID information, officials said. It may appear the call is coming from a federal agency’s legitimate phone number or from Washington, D.C., or may show the name of a federal agency.
The FBI said people can protect themselves from falling victim to the scam by remaining wary of answering phone calls from numbers they don’t recognize. Also, people should not send money to anyone they do not personally know and trust or give out their personal information, including banking information.
The FBI asks that anyone who thinks they were the victim of the federal officer impersonation scam, or other scams, immediately report the incident at ic3.gov.
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