FBI Warns Of Scam Targeting Student Visa Holders In US
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
The FBI is warning the public about a fraud scheme targeting foreign students living in the United States on valid student visas.
Scammers have targeted students from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan so far, the FBI said in a public service announcement on Tuesday.
The seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on the J. Edgar Hoover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) building in Washington, DC, on March 10, 2025.
The seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on the J. Edgar Hoover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) building in Washington, DC, on March 10, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
The Context
The alert comes as President Donald Trump is on a trip to the Middle East, with stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.
In the past month, the Trump administration stripped about 5,000 foreign students of their legal status in the U.S. as part of a crackdown on those involved in campus protests and pro-Palestinian activism, putting them at risk of deportation. But as court challenges mounted, the administration said it was restoring the previously terminated legal statuses of students while developing a framework to guide future action. In late April, the federal government said it was expanding the reasons international students can be stripped of their legal status in the U.S.
What To Know
The scheme involves scammers contacting foreign students studying in the U.S. or those in the process of coming to the U.S. and impersonating government or immigration officials "claiming the student is out of status for violations of F-1 student visa requirements or otherwise facing immigration issues," the FBI said.
"Victims are threatened with prosecution or deportation and asked to pay an unknown entity or bank account to process immigration paperwork, pay university registration fees, or pay a legal fee."
Sometimes, scammers will claim to be agents from the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the FBI said.
"In some instances, the scammers vary this scheme by presenting themselves as government officials from foreign countries," the FBI said. Diplomats from the UAE Embassy in Washington, D.C, have been impersonated, according to the bureau.
To add credibility to the scam, scammers will spoof officials phone numbers, speak professionally and useaccents that match the caller's claimed origin, the FBI said.
The FBI warned students to be wary of unsolicited communication from someone purporting to be from the government, especially by phone. The bureau said students should verify they are speaking to a government official by hanging up and contacting the agency through a number obtained through a third party and asking for the agent or department they were speaking with.
They are also warned against providing any information without verifying the identity of the caller, providing two-factor authentication codes used to log-in to accounts or devices or downloading files to their phone or computer without verifying the source.
What People Are Saying
The FBI said: "Scammers have also used fictitious names that sound like government agencies, impersonate US universities, and send links to fake websites. Scammers may spoof the phone number of government agencies, foreign embassies, or universities. They may speak professionally and use the accents and/or language matching the purported location of the callers."
What's Next
The FBI is asking anyone who believes they may have been targeted to report it at ic3.gov and include as much information as possible.
They also gather all relevant documentation and notify their home country's embassy and the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Anyone who has made a payment should contact their bank immediately to attempt to reverse any fraudulent wire transfers.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Woman wanted since 2023 in alleged murder of her 6-year-old son arrested: FBI
A woman wanted for capital murder in the suspected death of her 6-year-old son has been arrested more than two years after she boarded a flight from the United States to India, FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Wednesday. Cindy Rodriguez Singh, who had been named a top 10 most wanted fugitive by the FBI, faces charges in Texas for allegedly murdering her son, Noel Alvarez, authorities said. Noel had not been seen since October 2022, according to police in Everman, Texas, where the family lived at the time. He was last seen alive around the birth of his twin sisters, "appearing unhealthy and malnourished," police said. Everman police conducted a welfare check for him on March 20, 2023, at the request of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, according to the FBI. During the welfare check interview, Rodriguez Singh allegedly lied to officers about Noel's whereabouts when she said the boy had been living with his biological father in Mexico since November 2022, according to the FBI. Two days later, she boarded a flight to India with her husband and six other children, the FBI said. Not on the flight was Noel, whose mother had applied for passports for all of her children except him in November 2022, local police said. MORE: Missing 6-year-old Texas boy believed to be dead, warrant out for mother's arrest: Police Noel has never been found and is presumed dead, according to state and federal authorities. Rodriguez Singh is not believed to have returned to the U.S. since boarding the flight to India, the FBI said. She was charged with capital murder of a person under 10 years of age in October 2023 in Tarrant County district court, authorities said. A month later, a federal arrest warrant for the charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was issued against her, the FBI said. Rodriguez Singh, 40, was added to the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list in July. The agency had been offering up to a $250,000 reward for information leading to her arrest and conviction. MORE: Body of missing pregnant 18-year-old found, ex-boyfriend confessed to murder: Officials Patel thanked the FBI's local partners in Texas, the Justice Department, and "as well as partners in India for the coordinating." He did not say when or where specifically Rodriguez Singh was arrested. "This is the 4th '10 Most Wanted" fugitive arrested in the last 7 months," he said in a post on X. "That's a credit to tremendous field work, law enforcement partners, intelligence operatives, and an administration who is letting good cops do their jobs." Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said on X that he is "glad to see Rodriguez Singh being brought back to Texas from India, where she will finally face justice for the alleged heinous crime of murdering her child."
Newsweek
22 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Donald Trump Scores Court Win as Protections Blocked for 60,000 Migrants
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A federal appeals court on Wednesday sided with the Trump administration in its bid to end humanitarian protections for tens of thousands of immigrants from Central America and Nepal. The ruling puts on hold a lower court's order that had temporarily preserved Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for nearly 60,000 migrants. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco granted the administration an emergency stay pending appeal, in a setback for immigrant rights groups who contend the government acted unlawfully in terminating TPS designations for nationals of Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal. "The district court's order granting plaintiffs' motion to postpone, entered July 31, 2025, is stayed pending further order of this court," the panel of judges wrote. The three judges were appointees of former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable at "Alligator Alcatraz," a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla.... Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable at "Alligator Alcatraz," a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. More Associated Press Temporary Protected Status is a humanitarian program that allows migrants from countries hit by war, natural disasters or political instability to remain in the United States and obtain work permits. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has moved to curtail the program, arguing that conditions in certain countries no longer justify the designations. The administration has cast TPS restrictions as part of a broader strategy to expand deportations and narrow avenues for immigrants to remain in the country. Noem ruled to end TPS for 51,000 Hondurans and nearly 3,000 Nicaraguans, saying their countries had recovered sufficiently from Hurricane Mitch, which devastated Central America in 1998. Those protections are set to expire Sept. 8, after more than two decades of legal work status for many of the migrants. TPS for an estimated 7,000 Nepalis is slated to end Aug. 5. Immigrant advocacy groups sharply criticized the administration's actions. U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson in San Francisco had earlier ruled in favor of TPS holders, keeping protections in place while the case proceeds. In her July 31 order, she concluded the administration ended TPS "without an objective review of the country conditions," citing ongoing political violence in Honduras and recent destructive storms in Nicaragua. A follow-up hearing is scheduled for Nov. 18. In response, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the administration's stance. "TPS was never meant to be a de facto asylum system, yet that is how previous administrations have used it for decades," she said. The National TPS Alliance, a coalition representing TPS holders, has argued that Secretary Noem's decisions were unlawful, claiming they were driven by President Donald Trump's campaign promises and "motivated by racial animus." Government attorneys countered that the administration is entitled to set immigration policy. Drew Ensign, a U.S. deputy assistant attorney general, told the court Tuesday that the government suffers "irreparable harm" from its "inability to carry out the programs that it has determined are warranted." The Trump administration has already ended TPS for more than a million immigrants, including about 350,000 Venezuelans, 500,000 Haitians, over 160,000 Ukrainians, and thousands from Afghanistan and Cameroon. Some of those decisions remain tied up in lawsuits. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the administration to terminate protections for Venezuelans, issuing no rationale in its brief order, as is common in emergency appeals. This article includes reporting by the Associated Press.
CBS News
22 minutes ago
- CBS News
Wyoming man accused of making violent threats against Denver Anti-Defamation League office
A Wyoming man is facing charges in connection with several violent, antisemitic threats made against the Anti-Defamation League office in Denver and another against an office in Texas. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Casper resident Derek Allen Fulfer called the ADL Mountain States Region office three times on March 5 and left voicemails full of racial slurs threatening violence against Jewish people. According to transcripts provided in court documents, Fulfer also demanded to be put on a supposed "ban list" for anti-semitic people, denied the holocaust and claimed that Hitler is coming back and will destroy the Jewish people. Investigators confirmed the number belonged to Fulfer, and FBI agents interviewed him outside his home on Aug. 7. Officials said Fulfer claimed not to know what the ADL was and denied making the calls. He reportedly told the agents he believed a Jewish person called the FBI on him. Authorities said that he claimed someone was "trolling" him by using his voice and his opinions and calling the ADL. Fulfer also reported that the phone number used was no longer his, and he has a new number. Agents later interviewed Fulfer's father, who told them his son expressed similar sentiments to him when he was angry, and the voice in the messages sounded like his son's. Later that day, Fulfer contacted the FBI and asked to speak with the interviewing agents. Fulfer reportedly told them that he spoke to his father and admitted to leaving the threatening voicemails. According to the FBI, Fulfer admitted that he knew what the ADL is, that he was aware the group supports Jewish people and combats hate. He reportedly told agents that it was him speaking in the voicemails, and he made the calls while in Cheyenne for work. Fulfer claimed that he did not take further action after those calls and that he didn't think any victims would be affected. He allegedly told the agents he believed someone could only be a victim if a specific person was targeted. He's facing charges of making interstate threats, which carries a sentence of 0-5 years imprisonment and up to a $250,000 fine.
