Scammers Posing As FBI Agents Threaten Targets With Jail Time

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is warning of scammers actively posing as FBI representatives and threatening targets with fines and jail time unless they don’t hand out personal and/or financial information.

As the FBI warns, the agency has received multiple reports of such scam attempts where the fraudsters are targeting North Florida residents attempting to steal their personal info.

Additionally, “[m]ultiple versions of the government impersonation scam have been reported in recent days, all of which exploit intimidation tactics,” the FBI Jacksonville report added.

Scammers impersonating FBI agents

One of the victims reported that scammers first called as a sweepstakes company representative with promises of a large prize in exchange for providing sensitive personal information.

After denying to hand out any of the requested info, the victim was later contacted by a second scammer impersonating an FBI agent and asking for the same info to help with an investigation targeting the sweepstakes company.

Another victim was called by another fraudster posing as an FBI representative and was threatened to immediately provide financial and personal info to help with an ongoing investigation.

“The caller claimed to have an immediate need for personal information about the victim—to include financial account numbers—in order to eliminate the victim as a suspect in the alleged crime,” the FBI said.

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“When the victim declined to provide the information, the caller threatened fines and jail time.”

The FBI advises reaching out to the local field office to verify the identity of anyone claiming to be part of an investigation as a representative of the FBI.

The FBI added that none of the agency’s representatives will request money to solve an ongoing investigation or for other reasons.

All types of scams and fraud should be reported to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at www.IC3.gov. Filing a complaint with IC3 allows the FBI to identify patterns which aid in federal investigations as well as public awareness and crime-prevention education efforts. If you are a victim and suffered a financial loss or identity theft, also consider filing a report with your law enforcement and the Federal Trade Commission at https://www.identitytheft.gov/. — FBI

Warnings of ongoing scams and attacks

Recently, the US intelligence and security agency has also warned of vishing attacks targeting corporate accounts and COVID-19 vaccine-related fraud schemes.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has also published taxpayer guidance to help them identify theft attempts involving unemployment benefits.

“The Internal Revenue Service today urged taxpayers who receive Forms 1099-G for unemployment benefits they did not actually get because of identity theft to contact their appropriate state agency for a corrected form,” the US federal revenue service said.

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“Additionally, if taxpayers are concerned that their personal information has been stolen and they want to protect their identity when filing their federal tax return, they can request an Identity Protection Pin (IP PIN) from the IRS.”