Warn of falsification of FBI phone calls in South Texas

TEXAS – The offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made a call to the South Texas community not to be surprised by phone calls by a possible gang that falsified the number of the office.

Through a press release, the FBI office in El Paso announced that in this locality, as well as Midland and Alpine, they have presented a “recent increase in telephone calls that falsify the Office’s telephone number as part of a Social Security scam.

The FBI defines this type of scam as government spoofing fraud, where criminals pose as government officials in an attempt to raise money.

“Scammers are becoming more sophisticated and organized in their approach, they are tech savvy and often target the young and old,” the report says.

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), 13,873 people reported being scammed through the government’s spoofing scheme in 2019, with losses totaling more than $ 124 million.

The office indicates that those who carry out this activity make the phone call to the victim and whoever receives it sees that the number “appears to come from the FBI in the recipient’s caller ID.”

To deceive the person, the scammer provides false information, such as the license plate and agent number, with this false information he lets the victim know that his social security has been suspended and that he has arrest warrants.

In order for the arrest warrant not to be carried out and his social security number restored, the fraudster reaches an agreement with the victim and asks him to buy gift cards to which an amount of money must be deposited. unspecified money.

The scammer is given a reasonable amount of time to make the deposits and then called so that I can provide the gift card number.

Given this, the FBI asks the community not to be fooled, since no official is empowered to demand cash or through a transfer.

In case the person does not cooperate, they can threaten with some other type of extortion, even reaching physical or financial damage.

To avoid falling for these deceptions, the FBI asks people to be prudent when answering phone calls from unknown numbers, much less give personal information, including banking or social security number, in addition to not sending money through gift cards to people you don’t know.

Anyone who feels like a victim of this or any other online scam should report the incident immediately using the IC3 website at ic3.gov