Scammers are impersonating law enforcement, including ICE, to demand money

Scammers impersonating law enforcement, ICE

Criminals are calling Central Texans posing as law enforcement, including ICE, and demanding money. The scams are picking up at an alarming rate with local agencies even using social media to alert people. FOX 7 Austin?s Katie Pratt has more.

HAYS COUNTY, Texas - Criminals are calling Central Texans, posing as law enforcement, and demanding money. 

Local perspective:

The Hays County Sheriff's Office has seen a rise in reports of callers impersonating sheriff's deputies, claiming there is a warrant out for their arrest for failing to appear for jury duty. 

"In my own neighborhood here in Hays County, I know several residents were complaining within the same week because essentially they're going through public roll calls where they go through publicly available information," said Hays County Sheriff's Deputy Bryant Cuadros. 

Deputy Cuadros said that oftentimes these offenders are not even in the same country as the person they are contacting. 

"We wouldn't be calling people to solicit funds or have them pay bail," said Cuadros. "Even then there's very specific procedures for posting bail and exchange of cryptocurrency or gift cards is not an appropriate procedure."

Scammers also posing as ICE

"When people are motivated by fear as opposed to logic, you know, they'll do anything," said immigration attorney Thomas Esparza Jr. 

Another scare tactic that is becoming increasingly popular among these bad actors is pretending to be ICE agents. 

"They're susceptible to believing that our government would actually reach out to them, pick up the phone, call them, and say You know what, you better pay me some money now, or I'm gonna send somebody to pick you up," said Esparza Jr. 

Technology, including AI, helping criminals

The Better Business Bureau has also noticed an uptick in its scam tracker, including these cases. 

"With the onset of AI, it just makes it a lot easier for cyber criminals and obviously people that are trained to imitate people of authority," said BBB's Jason Meza. 

Through technology, thieves can mimic voices and phone numbers. 

"It's best for people to take a breath, hit the pause button, and just remember that it could be an impersonation," said Meza. "It could be someone that's mimicking or hijacked a title or a person's name and just trying to scare us and trying to back us into a corner and get something out of us." 

Another technique used to disguise an identity is known as 'spoofing.' 

"This number looks like it's coming from the Sheriff's Office because it's being spoofed, which basically means the caller ID is being made to look as if it's coming from us," said Cuadros. "It might actually display a legitimate number." 

What you can do:

When you do get a call from an unknown number, let it go to voicemail. The person will leave a voicemail if it is important. 

"Once your number is marked as a real person, the scams will continue," said Meza. "You've given a signal, you've answered the phone, you've replied, or you've given them information. So now, they perpetrated that number. They may resell that number to say it's a live person, continue pitching, or continue soliciting this person." 

It's important to hang up, call the agency directly, and report these cases.