Numerous Aurora residents have been scammed out of thousands of dollars by complying with the demands of phony callers pretending to be immigration and IRS agents, local police said.
Aurora Police Department spokesman Dan Ferrelli said the scam involves victims receiving phone calls from people alleging to be from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement or the IRS.
The scammers tell people they owe fines that must be paid. If not, the caller threatens the victim with arrest or deportation.
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Ferrelli said that many times the victims are told that they made mistakes on their citizenship papers or that their documents are incomplete.
The caller then tells people to go to a grocery or department store that offers money-by-wire services and send substantial amounts of money to pay their fines.
Ferrelli said It is not unusual for the scammers to repeatedly call the same victim and obtain additional money once the initial amount is sent. In one case, a victim also gave up her social security number and possibly her bank account number before realizing she was being scammed, police said.
According to Ferrelli, these federal agencies will never initiate these types of proceedings, ask for personal information, or demand immediate payment over the phone. If residents receive a similar call, they should hang up and report the scam to the Federal Trade Commission at ftc.gov.
Ferrelli said it is important for residents to verify who they are talking to on the phone by looking-up the main number for the service and calling the number themselves. He warned against having the caller transfer the call for someone. It is also important to not trust the number on the caller ID since it can be cloned, he warned.
Most importantly, Ferrelli said to never wire money to someone you don’t know.
More information on the scams is available at irs.gov or uscis.gov.