Beware of Telephone Scammers Claiming to Be with the FBI

There are many telephone scams out there designed to steal your money. I am not just talking about dishonest telemarketers selling shoddy merchandise. The caller may actually be trying to steal your identity or charge up your credit cards. Many will impersonate well-known companies or organizations. In the telephone scam I received, they were actually impersonating the Federal Bureau of Investigation! These are professional telephone scammers who do this for a living. Do not give out your personal, banking or credit card information to anyone who calls. It's too bad that it has to be this way, but better safe than sorry. If a telemarketer calls just say, "No thank you," and hang up the phone. Do not even give them a chance to respond, because they will stay on the phone as long as you do.

I received a call a few months ago from a man claiming he was with the FBI. The telephone scam artist stated that I had been selected for an enrichment program. They are helping lower income Americans and wanted to deposit several thousand dollars into my account. OK, so I didn't follow my own advice. What I should have done is disconnected the call since that scenario would never happen. Instead I said, "That's great! I'll be looking for that deposit!!" The telephone scam artist said, "Wait! Don't hang up. We need your account number." At that point I was 100% sure he wasn't with the FBI. Wanting to play a game I said, "You are with the FBI, you know everything about me including my account numbers." This call went on and on for over 30 minutes as I was bored that day. He said, "Of course we know your account number we just need to verify it." I continued to ask him a multitude of questions including, "What does it feel like to steal money day in and day out from innocent people?" After awhile he got frustrated and said that I must speak with his supervisor. The telephone scam supervisor got on the line and tried to pretend that he was the voice of authority, telling me that I must comply immediately. After I refused to give out my banking information repeatedly, he advised they were drafting out $500 from my bank. He said it is a penalty from the FBI for being so uncooperative and wasting their time.

After I disconnected the call with the pretend FBI, I decided to report it. This was a large operation, as I could hear an entire call center in the background. For this to be worthwhile for them, there must be people that are convinced they are actually FBI agents. I had no idea where to report it, so initially I called my bank and told them what happened. The bank said report it to the FBI. The FBI said to report it to the Federal Trade Commission. The FBI was right. The Federal Trade Commission will investigate telephone scams and also recommends reporting the call to your state attorney general. The FTC can be reached at 1-877-FTC-HELP. It may seem like a hassle to report it, but is a good deed to save other people that may believe them.