In the current climate of aggressive deportations, scammers are attempting to cash in by impersonating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and local police to scare naturalized U.S. citizens and immigrants into giving out information.
For example, on the NextDoor social media site, a posting stated that a naturalized U.S. citizen received multiple calls from purported ICE agents and the county police. The fake ICE agent informed him that there was an arrest warrant and asked about his bank account and other assets. The spoofed phone number matched the phone number on ICE’s actual website. The fake police detective called and gave the victim his badge number and name and stated that the police were coming to arrest him. The victim and his brother took steps to verify the information. The police did not have any detective or badge number matching the fake information.
Police or ICE agents will not call people before serving an arrest warrant and ask for personal or financial information. Also, scammers can mimic valid phone numbers. Such scams should be reported to the local police.