{"id":31862,"date":"2025-11-05T01:32:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T01:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-vm.com\/?p=31862"},"modified":"2025-11-05T01:32:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T01:32:57","slug":"fbi-issues-severe-warning-for-phone-scam-heres-how-you-protect-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-vm.com\/?p=31862","title":{"rendered":"FBI issues severe warning for phone scam \u2013 here\u2019s how you protect yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Be cautious about who you talk to on your phone, as you may be scammed. That\u2019s the latest message from the FBI. The warning includes thieves impersonating federal agents threatening arrest. This is how you should deal with it if it happens to you.<\/strong><\/p><div class=\"nwlru69ff9aab15cd1\" ><div style=\"width:100%; max-width:1200px; margin:0 auto;\">\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/bolt-casino.com?r=0BFDBF1283\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\n    <img \n      src=\"https:\/\/news-vm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/f8693ebb-2018-480f-a2f7-0096810c07f0.jpg\" \n      alt=\"200% Deposit Bonus + 10% Cashback\" \n      style=\"width:100%; height:auto; display:block; border-radius:8px; cursor:pointer;\"\n    \/>\n  <\/a>\n<\/div><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 1201px) {\r\n.nwlru69ff9aab15cd1 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 993px) and (max-width: 1200px) {\r\n.nwlru69ff9aab15cd1 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) {\r\n.nwlru69ff9aab15cd1 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 768px) {\r\n.nwlru69ff9aab15cd1 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n@media screen and (max-width: 767px) {\r\n.nwlru69ff9aab15cd1 {\r\ndisplay: block;\r\n}\r\n}\r\n<\/style>\r\n\n<p>In early June,\u00a0the FBI Cleveland\u00a0office issued a new warning to US citizens. Scammers are spoofing, meaning imitating, FBI phone numbers nationwide, and impersonating government agents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVictims are tricked into thinking an arrest is imminent unless they send money. If you believe you have been a victim of this scam,\u201d the FBI Cleveland wrote on June 2.<\/p>\n<p>The Nashville branch added: \u201cThe FBI will never call you demanding money to get out of criminal charges. It\u2019s a scam. Hang up and visit the FBI\u2019s ic3.gov to file a report.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The scamming attacks have not been limited to federal agencies; reports of scams have been local and nationwide throughout the years.<\/p>\n<p>On June 2, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) put out a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.atf.gov\/news\/press-releases\/atf-warns-public-scam-involving-fraudulent-calls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">public advisory<\/a>, saying \u201ccitizens should report suspicious calls to the ATF at 1-888-ATF-TIPS or the FBI\u2019s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.\u201d If someone were to become a victim, they should \u201ccontact local law enforcement immediately\u201d after reports about scam calls where people impersonated their agents became known.<\/p>\n<p>It further stated that ATF attacks impersonating its agents instruct victims to \u201cpurchase Apple gift cards in amounts of $500 or $1,000 to \u2018clear a red flag\u2019 from their accounts. Victims are then asked to provide gift card numbers to the callers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ATF wrote that they will never \u201ccall or email private citizens to demand payment or threaten arrest. You will not be asked to wire a \u2018settlement\u2019 to avoid arrest; ask you to use large sums of your own money to help catch a criminal; request you send money via wire transfer to foreign accounts, cryptocurrency, or gift\/prepaid cards; [or] call you about \u2018frozen\u2019 Social Security numbers or to coordinate inheritances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The FBI has warned that scammers employ a variety of approaches. However, in the end, they \u201call exploit intimidation tactics\u201d where they use \u201can urgent and aggressive tone, refusing to speak to or leave a message with anyone other than their targeted victim.\u201d Moreover, they have also been known to warn victims \u201cnot to tell anyone else, including family, friends, or financial institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In late June, US Marshals also issued a warning, alerting people that attacks from scanners had increased.<\/p>\n<p>The US Marshals will \u201cNEVER call you to collect money or resolve a court case,\u201d it read, per\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/07\/06\/fbi-warning-you-must-not-take-any-of-these-phone-calls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Forbes<\/a>, warning that scammers use \u201creal USMS names\u201d in their attacks. \u201cHANG UP,\u201d they further said, \u201cand REPORT to your local FBI office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Please share this article on Facebook with your friends and family and spread the word about these horrific scams. Hopefully, it can lead to fewer people getting scammed.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Be cautious about who you talk to on your phone, as you may be scammed. That\u2019s the latest message from the FBI. The warning includes thieves impersonating federal agents threatening arrest. This is how you should deal with it if it happens to you. In early June,\u00a0the FBI Cleveland\u00a0office issued a new warning to US&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19,17,11,20,24,15,12,25,22,18,16,21,14,23,13],"class_list":["post-31862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chronic-diseases","tag-fitness","tag-health-tips","tag-healthcare-technology","tag-healthy-lifestyle","tag-healthy-living","tag-medical-advice","tag-medical-awareness","tag-medical-research","tag-mental-health","tag-nutrition","tag-patient-care","tag-preventive-care","tag-public-health","tag-wellness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FBI issues severe warning for phone scam \u2013 here\u2019s how you protect yourself - VM News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news-vm.com\/?p=31862\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FBI issues severe warning for phone scam \u2013 here\u2019s how you protect yourself - VM News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Be cautious about who you talk to on your phone, as you may be scammed. 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