New Scam: Asian Extortion Scheme

Added June 10, 2009 by Ilyce R. Glink

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Summary: New scams are popping up this Spring like daisies. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a new scam is making the rounds, and it is targeting ethnic business owners, particularly those of Asian descent. If you get a telephone call where the person at the other end sounds like he or she has your personal or business information, and threatens you, get as much information as you can, and then call your local FBI office.

New Scam: Asian and Ethnic Business Extortion Scheme

The Federal Bureau of Investigation sent out an alert from the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) today. The FBI is currently aware of a nationwide attempt to extort ethnic business owners, mostly of Asian decent, through telephonic threats of violence. The telephone calls appear to be originating from foreign countries. The caller acquires an adequate amount of open source information about the victim through Internet searches. This misleads the victim into believing the subject has personal knowledge about the victim. There have been no reported incidents of violence actually perpetrated to date.

Individuals who receive phone calls or e-mails containing threats of violence and their personally identifiable information (PII) are encouraged to contact law enforcement as well as file a complaint at www.IC3.gov.

Whatever you do, do not provide additional personal information or details to the caller. Tell the caller that you have to check some information and ask for a call-back number. Treat this call as a phishing scam.

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