The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Office of Inspector General have issued a fraud alert to warn citizens of reports that the hotline phone number has been used recently as a part of a scam.
The telephone spoofing scam targets individuals throughout the country, and the perpetrators of the scam represent themselves as employees with “U.S. Immigration” and can alert caller ID systems to make it appear that the call is coming from the DHS Hotline number (1-800-323-8603).
The scammers demand to obtain or verify personally identifiable information from their victims by telling individuals that they are victims of identity theft.
Many of the scammers reportedly have pronounced accents.
The DHS and OIG reminds the public that it never uses its Hotline number to make outgoing calls and that the line is only used to receive information from the public.
Individuals should never answer calls from 1-800-323-8603 and should never provide personal information during calls claiming to be from the DHS OIG hotline.
Anyone who believes they may have been a victim of this telephone spoofing scam is urged to call our Hotline or file a complaint online via the DHS OIG website http://www.oig.dhs.gov. You may also contact the Federal Trade Commission to file a complaint and/or report identity theft.
