You could probably see this one and others like it coming, given the current immigration quagmire that is the United States immigration environment. Today the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a fraud alert saying criminals have been using the agency’s Hotline as part of a spoofing scam to steal personal information.
+More on Network World: DARPA to eliminate “patch & pray” by baking chips with cybersecurity fortification+
The DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) said perpetrators of the scam represent themselves as employees with “U.S. Immigration” and can alter caller ID systems to make it appear that the call is coming from the DHS OIG Hotline telephone number (1-800-323-8603).
“The scammers demand to obtain or verify personally identifiable information from their victims through various tactics, including by telling individuals that they are the victims of identity theft. Many of the scammers reportedly have pronounced accents,” the DHS wrote.
DHS OIG went on to say that while it investigates 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. Individuals should not answer calls purporting to be from 1-800-323-8603, and should never provide personal information during calls purporting to be from the DHS OIG Hotline.”
DHS said it is safe to use the DHS OIG Hotline to report fraud, waste, abuse, or mismanagement within DHS components or programs.
Check out these other hot stories:
Computing pioneer Robert Taylor dies
Avaya files Chapter 11 reorg plan, reduces debt by $4 billion
Cisco runs out two “critical” security warnings for IOS, Apache Struts (again)
Avaya plan deploys network virtualization, segmentation to guard business jewels
DARPA to eliminate “patch & pray” by baking chips with cybersecurity fortification