Three Oklahoma Muslims have been targeted in what appears to be a phone scam, said Adam Soltani, executive director of the Oklahoma office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The three, all immigrants who live in the Oklahoma City area, received calls Thursday or Friday from someone claiming to be with the “Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation,” Soltani said, an apparent attempt to convey that they were with the FBI.
The callers said the immigrants were under investigation and needed to provide information. They were told that if they failed to so, they would face legal consequences, Soltani said.
“This was kind of a scary phone call,” he said, especially for people unfamiliar with the American legal system.
He said he had left word about the calls with the Oklahoma City office of the FBI.
A number of CAIR chapters around the nation have received similar complaints in recent weeks from their members contacted by someone claiming to be a federal agent. Some of the so-called agents demanded money to correct alleged problems with the person’s immigration records.
Soltani said he is advising the Muslim community not to give out sensitive information to callers; to ask the caller for his name, agency and a call-back number; and to notify CAIR of the call.