DHS Hotline Phone Number Used to Steal PII from Illegal Immigrants

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is warning immigrants of a new scam. The inspector general for the agency warned that scammers are using the DHS hotline number to obtain personally identifiable information (PII) from victims and then use it to steal identities.

The phone number for the hotline is spoofed, or faked, to make the victims believe it is coming from a legitimate agency number. However, the hotline number is not used to make outgoing calls. Instead, it is used to receive calls from the public. That’s according to the inspector general. The number, 1-800-323-8603 is the number that will appear on the telephone’s caller ID, but should not be answered. Should a call accidently be answered, no personal information should be provided to the caller on the other end.

DHS has received approximately a dozen complaints about this scam. While that doesn’t sound like a big enough number to cause concern, the reality is that there are likely far more people being victimized. Often, immigrants don’t report such scams for fear of being caught up in the current heightened immigration enforcement activities, according to a staff attorney at the Immigrant Resource Center. However, those who do receive such call are encouraged to report them.

There have been other instances of U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) agents being impersonated and used in scams. However, those were spoofed numbers from local offices. As far as is known, the hotline number has never been used for these purposes before.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been used many times in such scams in the past. The callers will impersonate IRS agents and threaten immigrants with deportation or revocation of driver’s licenses unless a payment of owned taxes is made immediately via the phone.

Government agencies, including USCIS will not request payment via the telephone. If they need to communicate with anyone, it will be initiated using the postal service and include a verifiable address and a case reference number on the communication.