Dear International Students and Scholars,

This is an important reminder of reports around the U.S., and also here in Connecticut, of international students being victimized by individuals claiming to be U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the police, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), or other government figures. These individuals target international students because they know that you are trying to do your best to follow all the government rules and procedures, and therefore you are vulnerable to their scams.

If you are unexpectedly called on the phone by an individual who is claiming to be from the police or another government agency, and they ask you to provide personal information or to send money, this could be a scam. You should ask the individual for their name, what agency they are from, and their contact phone number so that you can call them back. If they are truly a government or police official, then they should be willing to give you this information. You can contact ISSS for further assistance, or call your local police station if ISSS is not available. If is determined that the agent is real, you can then call them back. Some scammers have even made it appear on the caller ID that they are calling from actual government numbers. This is why it is important that you ask to call them back, and take as much information from the caller as possible before verifying with ISSS (or the police if ISSS is unavailable) the validity of the call.

Some scammers may tell you that your legal visa status is in jeopardy for one reason or the other, but that you can pay money through wire transfer to resolve the issue; they may also ask you for many personal details- (i.e. SSN, your address, bank account information). These are red flags that the caller is a scammer. Never give out important personal details over the phone without verifying first with ISSS/police that the call is real, and never pay anything to anyone who is requesting this over the phone.

Please note that scammers may contact you by email as well. Complicating matters, Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which is the government division of Department of Homeland Security that oversees the student visitor program, does occasionally contact students by email to notify you of important information regarding your SEVIS/immigration record. If you receive such an email, please confirm with ISSS that the message is real. Do not ignore the message.

If you are the victim of a scam or immigration related fraud, please take the following steps:

· Report this to your local police, and ask how you can file a report that you were the victim of a fraud. They may have you come in, or may take your report over the phone. Ask them the proper procedures for this.

· Report this to ISSS.

Depending on the details of the crime, you will also need to also:

· Report the fraud to any of the agencies that were associated with the phone call (for example, if they were claiming to be IRS, you should report it to IRS. If they were claiming to be USCIS, report it to USCIS.)

· Report the crime to all agencies associated with any of the personal information you give out (for example, if you gave bank account information, contact your bank to report the scam, or if you gave out your SSN, report it to Social Security Administration, and possibly the IRS for tax implications.

· Contact your home country embassy/consulate in the U.S. to report that you were the victim of a crime, and if you gave out passport details you can report this as well.

If you are contacted by a scammer and realize early on that it is a fraud, and you don’t give the caller any information, then you should still notify ISSS and report the contact to the relevant agencies mentioned in the phone call.

UConn Police has general information on identity theft on their website: http://publicsafety.uconn.edu/police/education-and-programs/crime-prevention-and-awareness/identity-theft/ . You may want to familiarize yourself with the information to prevent any potential scams.

The following links also provide further information on scams/fraud:

http://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/2015/08/scams-targeting-international-students-are-on-the-rise

http://www.uscis.gov/avoid-scams/report-immigration-scams

http://www.uscis.gov/avoid-scams/common-scams

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/scam-alerts

http://www.usa.gov/topics/consumer/scams-fraud.shtml

Thank you.

Rae Alexander
Director

International Student and Scholar Services

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

GLOBAL AFFAIRS