Full Notification

**Scam Alert**

We have been notified of another method of trying to scam our hard working citizens out of their money.

A foreign citizen received a phone call today, and the Caller ID showed the number as 911. Upon answering it, the person on the other end of the phone stated that the citizen was in trouble with Immigration and that a warrant had been issued for her arrest and that if she did not pay it, then she would be arrested and deported. The citizen hung up the phone, but then the phone rang several more times, but this time with a 1-800 number. When she answered, the person began giving them the same threats of being deported, and stated they were calling from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The caller again hung up. She googled the number that called her, and that number comes back to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The female citizen contacted the NCSO. We in turn, contacted the USCIS and they informed us that this has been an ongoing issue with scammers within the last couple of years.

They informed us the same things that we have been telling you as of recently. Any Federal Agency like USCIS or the IRS will always attempt to contact you by mail first normally. Never give any banking or credit card information over the phone. You will never have to pay to keep from having a warrant issued for your arrest (except for Child Support). Just because the phone number that calls you says it belongs to a certain business or organization, does not always mean that is who is calling you. With technology today, scammers can "spoof" their numbers into any number that they wish to in order to make the call look legitimate.

If anyone else receives any calls like this from the USCIS, you can contact them at USCIS.gov/avoidscams.