The Drug Enforcement Administration wants to warn the public of a widespread fraud scheme where telephone scammers are impersonating DEA agents.

DEA-Mobile office has received multiple calls to the tip line regarding this scam.

Scammers may tell the victim their name was used to rent a vehicle which was stopped at the border and found to contain a large quantity of drugs. The caller then asks the person to verify their social security number or tells the person their bank account has been compromised. In some cases, the caller threatens the person with arrest for the fictional drug seizure. The caller may then instruct the person to send money to pay a “fine.”

Employing more sophisticated tactics, schemers have spoofed legitimate DEA phone numbers to convince their target the call is legitimate, or texted photos of what appears to be a real law enforcement badge and photo ID.

A portion of an actual scam call can be heard here.

Additionally, scammers may:

• use an aggressive tone and refuse to leave a message with anyone other than the targeted victim;
• threaten arrest and in the case of doctors/pharmacists, threaten to cancel their DEA registration number;
• demand thousands of dollars via wire transfer or in the form of untraceable gift card numbers the victim is told to provide over the phone;
• ask for personal information, like social security number and date of birth;
• reference National Provider Identifier numbers and/or state license numbers when calling a medical practitioner. They also may claim that patients are making accusations against that practitioner.

DEA personnel will never contact members of the public or medical practitioners by telephone to demand money or any other form of payment.

Anyone receiving a call from a person claiming to be with DEA should report the incident to the FBI at www.ic3.gov. The Federal Trade Commission also takes reports at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

Learn to protect yourself against identity theft at www.identitytheft.gov.