The U.S. Marshals Service in Maine is alerting the public of a phone scam involving individuals claiming to be U.S. Marshals or other federal officials.
During these calls, scammers are “spoofing” actual U.S. Marshals office phone numbers, attempting to fraudulently collect money by threatening legal consequences. The scammers claim potential victims need to “pay a fine or post bond” or face being arrested, losing their property, banking accounts, or other consequences.
The scammers use many convincing tactics such as citing publicly available information of prospective victims, which may include old residential addresses and phone numbers to appear credible. In an effort to further appear legitimate, bad faith actors may also provide fictitious information such as law enforcement badge and case numbers, and or names of actual law enforcement officials.
Scammers may also spoof their phone numbers to appear on caller IDs as if they are calling from a government agency such as the U.S. Marshals Service.
The U.S. Marshals Service urges the public to be vigilant when receiving any calls of this nature and to contact the agency in question to authenticate the information by calling them directly, using information provided by verified official websites.
U.S. Marshals will never ask for credit/debit card/gift card numbers, wire transfers, or bank routing numbers for any purpose. Never divulge personal or financial information to unknown callers.
Members of the public who believe they have been victimized by such scams are encouraged to report the incident to their local FBI office and to the Federal Trade Commission. Reports can be made through the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.
Online, business, or phone scams can be reported immediately to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
The U.S. Marshals Service highly recommends the public report similar crimes to their local police departments.
