The callers pose as Police, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Chinese Police or Consulate officials and extort money or personal information from victims by threatening to arrest or deport them for taxes or fees that haven’t been paid.
If you receive such a call, just hang up. It's a scam!
A similar campaign recently targeted the Medical Center, identifying themselves as DEA agents (using real DEA agent names from the DEA directory) attempt to extort and threaten the victims with arrest. The criminals behind these attacks take advantage of available information to feign authenticity of the call. These calls can also use fake Caller ID numbers which appear to originate from within Columbia University.
What to look out for:
- The unknown caller claims to be a law enforcement official.
- Impersonator raises an issue of urgency, indicating that you have violated the law.
- Impersonator provides accurate personal information to coerce you into taking action.
- The caller asks for payment on a fine in reference to a criminal offense.
- The call has background noise and sometimes appears to come from a foreign caller.
What to do:
- Do not share or provide any personal details on the phone call.
- If you feel unsafe, hang up the call immediately and report the incident to Public Safety.
- Ask the impersonator for a call back number, and then hang up the phone (This detail can assist in future investigations by legitimate law enforcement agencies.)
- Although commonly spoofed, take note of the Caller ID information for reporting purposes.
- Share your experience and inform your office colleagues to be on the alert for similar scams.
Below are some resources to help you identify these scams: