New Scam Modality

On March 3, a statement was published through the  official website of the DEA  (Drug Enforcement Administration) that alerts about a new fraud scheme discovered through the various complaints filed with the aforementioned government department.

WASHINGTON: “ The Drug Enforcement Administration is warning the public of a widespread fraud scheme in which telephone scammers impersonate DEA agents in an attempt to extort money or steal personally identifiable information. A  new public service announcement  aims to raise awareness that the DEA will never call asking for money or asking for personal information. ”
 There are variations in the modality used by scammers to bring down the victim, among them is the false story that the victim’s name was used to rent a vehicle.that was stopped at the border because it contained a large amount of drugs, the caller then aims to “verify” the victim’s social security number, or tells them that their bank account has been compromised. In some cases, the scammer threatens the victim with arrest for the fictitious seizure of drugs and instructs the person, over the phone, to send money either by gift cards or wire transfer to pay a “fine,” to help with the investigation or to assist with the alleged reestablishment of the bank account. You can listen to a clip of an actual scam call captured by the DEA  here . 

Scammers  have also sophisticated their tactics by spoofing real DEA phone numbers, sending doctored photos of real law enforcement credentials, and using locally known officer names to further manipulate and increase the credibility of the story. The reported tactics are continually changing but all cases share common characteristics such as: 

• Using an urgent and aggressive tone, refusing to speak or leave a message with anyone other than their target victim.
• Threaten prosecution, imprisonment, and, in the case of doctors and pharmacists, revocation of their DEA registration.
• Demanding thousands of dollars via wire transfer or in the form of untraceable gift card numbers that the victim is asked to provide over the phone.
• Request personal information, such as social security number or date of birth.
• Reference national provider identification numbers and/or state license numbers when calling a doctor. They may also claim that patients are making accusations against that doctor.

Given the circumstances, the DEA has issued this  alert  and reports: “DEA personnel will never contact the public or doctors by telephone to solicit money or any other form of payment, will never request personal or confidential information over the telephone, and will only notify individuals of a legitimate investigation or legal action. in person or by official letter. In fact, no legitimate federal law enforcement officer will demand cash or gift cards from a member of the public. He should only give money, gift cards, personally identifiable information, including bank account information, to someone he knows. The best deterrent against these bad actors is awareness and caution. Anyone who receives a call from a person claiming to be with the DEA should report the incident to the FBI at  www.ic3.gov. The Federal Trade Commission provides recovery actions, shares information with more than 3,000 law enforcement agencies, and takes reports at  reportfraud.ftc.gov . For any victim who gave personally identifiable information such as a social security number to the caller, you can learn how to protect against identity theft at  www.identitytheft.gov .”