FBI Pittsburgh is cautioning Western PA residents about a telephone spoofing campaign where the caller is portraying themselves as a special agent and the phone number is showing as FBI Pittsburgh.

In recent cases, the victim, who the caller addresses by name, is told their identity has been “compromised” and used to open fraudulent bank accounts that had been used to send suspicious money transfers overseas. Because these transfers appeared to be coming from the victim, they were told they would be prosecuted by the FBI. The caller tells the victims to prove their identity by purchasing Money Cards with all the funds in their bank account. They are then told to read the card numbers to the suspect over the phone and text him photos of the cards, the receipt, and the victim’s face. The victims are told there will be a face-to-face meeting set up to verify their identity and return their funds. But that meeting never takes place. To date, FBI Pittsburgh has seen several instances of these scams with losses between $1,000 to $6,000, and the victims have been located in other parts of the country.

Original source can be found here.