Scammers posing as government agents are using a Department of Homeland Security phone line to steal personal information from Americans across the United States, the agency announced in a fraud alert released Wednesday.
The perpetrators alter caller ID systems to make it seem as though the call is coming from the DHS Office of Inspector General hotline. The scammers, claiming to be employees with U.S. immigration, demand personal information through various methods, such as telling those on the receiving end they are victims of identity theft.
DHS reported that many of the scammers have "pronounced accents."
"DHS OIG takes this matter very seriously," the office said in a statement. "While we investigate the situation, we would like to remind the public that DHS OIG never uses its Hotline number to make outgoing calls—the phone line is only used to receive information from the public."
The agency warned Americans against providing personal information to people purporting to be calling from the DHS OIG hotline, but noted that the line remains "perfectly safe" to report fraud, waste, and abused within the agency.
