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ATLANTA - Federal authorities are warning citizens of a scammer or group of scammers—potentially outside of the United States—contacting American citizens around the country, posing as prosecutors or federal law enforcement and attempting to defraud people of money by claiming they are possible victims or suspects of a fraud investigation.

“These fraudsters are capitalizing on fear and intimidation because nobody wants to be the victim of a crime or the subject of a law enforcement investigation,” said FBI Atlanta Acting Special Agent in Charge Peter Ellis. “The FBI will actively pursue and charge those who participate in such criminal activity.”

“Fraudsters will go to great lengths to steal money from people who, in this case, believe they are dutifully complying with lawful requests by law enforcement or prosecutors,” said U.S. Attorney William R. “Will” Keyes. “No one in the U.S. Attorney’s Office will contact a citizen with demands for bank account information and money. If you receive a similar call or email, please contact the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov immediately.”

According to the FBI, in this specific scam, fraudsters impersonate federal agents or prosecutors. By reaching out via text message, email or call, the fraudster claims you have been a victim of fraud, or you are a suspect in a fraud investigation.

If someone receives such a call or email, they should not provide any personal information, credit card numbers, prepaid cards or money. Federal authorities do not call victims of crimes or suspects of crimes and ask for money or personal identifying information over the telephone.

Here are some tips to avoid becoming the victim of this type of scam:

• Always be suspicious of unsolicited phone calls, text messages and emails.
• Never give money or personal information to someone with whom you don’t have ties and did not initiate contact.
• Trust your instincts: if an unknown caller pressures you, or says things that don’t sound right, hang up.
• If concerns remain about the caller’s claims, verify the information with the appropriate law enforcement agency or court officials.

If you believe you have been a victim of a fraudulent scheme, you are encouraged to file a report, including a description of the caller and any available caller ID information, with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

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Since 2000, the IC3 has received complaints crossing the spectrum of cybercrime matters, to include online fraud in its many forms including Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) matters, Computer Intrusions (hacking), Economic Espionage (Theft of Trade Secrets), Online Extortion, International Money Laundering, Identity Theft, and a growing list of Internet facilitated crimes. It has become increasingly evident that, regardless of the label placed on a cybercrime matter, the potential for it to overlap with another referred matter is substantial. Therefore, the IC3, formerly known as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC), was renamed in October 2003 to better reflect the broad character of such matters having an Internet, or cyber, nexus referred to the IC3, and to minimize the need for one to distinguish "Internet Fraud" from other potentially overlapping cyber crimes.