FBI warning: Students across U.S. being targeted in scary scam

A new fraud scheme is targeting foreign individuals who are lawfully residing in the U.S. on valid student visas, the FBI is warning in a new alert.

Coming amid Trump administration crackdowns on people in the country illegally, the FBI said scammers are posing as U.S. and foreign government officials to claim there are issues with valid F-1 student visas and immigration status. Then, the scammers use the information to exploit the student financially.

Students report being threatened with prosecution or deportation and asked to pay an unknown entity or bank account to process immigration paperwork, pay university registration costs or pay a legal fee.

So far, the FBI said scammers have targeted students from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan. The scammers have represented themselves as agents of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to increase the credibility of the scam. Other reports said the scammers claim to be government officials from foreign countries, including UAE and Qatar, as well as diplomats from the UAE Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Scammers have also used fictitious names that sound like government agencies, impersonate US universities, and send links to fake websites, the FBI said. They go as far as speaking professionally and using the accent or language matching the purported location of the callers. Victims are often asked to pay a fee because of the scam via cryptocurrency, prepaid card/gift cards, or wire transfers.

How to protect yourself from the FBI:

Beware of unsolicited communication from someone purporting to be from the government, especially by phone. Verify you are speaking with a government official by hanging up and contacting the office through a third-party obtained number (e.g. web search for legitimate contact information), then asking for the agent or department you were speaking with.

Verify that the website visited is a secure or encrypted site, as government websites are.

Repeating top level domains in a URL is a common scam to make a website appear legitimate (e.g., “gov.org” in a URL is a spoof of the .gov top level domain).

Do not provide information on the phone until you verify the identity of the caller.

If you believe you are the target of a government impersonation scam targeting foreign students, gather all relevant documentation and contact diplomatic security at your home country’s embassy, the FBI, or Bureau of Diplomatic Security at the Department of State.

Do not give anyone a two-factor authentication code used to log-in to an account or device.

Do not download files to your phone or computer unless you have verified the source.