The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) has received several reports of victims that are phoned and played automated threatening messages claiming to be from the FBI.
The NFIB have said victims are either phoned or left the automated message on their phone.
The scam messages claim the USA’s FBI has an arrest warrant in the victim’s name (even though the victims name is never mentioned and calls are received in the UK).
The victim is then told to contact the telephone number 3237 592 099 to stop the warrant being executed. Many of the reports state the victims need to do this by a certain time.
Linked to a fake law firm
Most reports state that the phone number is for a law firm called Walsh & Peters LLP where the victim then has to ask for David Williams in order for the warrant to be stopped.
Other alternative law firms are mentioned in some reports such as Walter & Peters, Schwartz & Peters and Lodge & Peters.
Some victims that have reported to Action Fraud have attempted to contact the suspect number but the call does not appear to connect, this could potentially be because victims are not putting the internationally dialling code in front of the suspect number.
Open source research reveals the suspect phone number is based in Los Angeles, California.
If you receive one of these messages, ignore it, do not call the number and report it to Action Fraud.