Consumer complaint received 2021-06-12
Company: Early Warning Services, LLC
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, someone from US immigration and customs enforcement ( XXXX ; can not remember the name of this person ) called me saying that I should be investigated by today for being a suspect of having double identity and threatening national safety because I have not given up my XXXX  citizenship after getting US citizenship in XX/XX/XXXX. Even though I told them I did not know I had to and will contact the XXXX  Consult when I arrive to California since I was at the XXXX airport moving back to California with my whole family, but she was reluctant. She told me to go to a private area for the investigation, so I checked in with my family first and told them to go through the TSA check first. For the investigation, she asked me when I came to US, when I received my XXXX XXXX, which bank I use, how much I have on my checking and savings account, if I ever received international money, etc. I do not remember if I gave her my SSN During the phone call with this person, a call from real XXXX police number ( XXXX ) came and she told me to put her on hold and answer it. The XXXX police named XXXX XXXX said she is at my apartment because I have an arrest order for the same reason and asked if I am running away. The immigration officer said she can help with the police situation by emailing her that she is already investigating me and said there is an option for me to pay the bonding fee for me to travel out of state and get investigated in California. She told me to open the pdf file on ice.gov and made me read some paragraphs out loud about bonding fee. She told me to download this mobile app called XXXX so that they can monitor my phone screen since I am still being suspected. She told me to log into the XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX banking and told me to send money through Zelle to email address ( XXXX ) for {$3500.00} from my checking account as a bonding fee. I was very scared and they were monitoring me via screen so I was forced to authorize the payment. After the transaction, the immigration officer told me to wait for the call from police before going into the TSA check so I did, and I was finally released after getting a call from the police. The police said she will text me with her private phone number so that she can continue to investigate me tomorrow and sent me a text with this phone number ( XXXX ). Both of them emphasized me not to declare this issue to anyone, including my parents, because my parents may need to get investigated and penalized if I do so, so I did not. The next day ( XX/XX/XXXX ), XXXX XXXX ( introduced as a XXXX police ) called me again with the above number and said I need to pay more bonding plus attorney fees because the case must be transferred to California now. Again, she monitored my screen via XXXX  app and made me sent her {$1700.00} twice to this XXXX  address ( XXXX ) from my savings account. They forced me to authorize the payments by replying to security alerted texts from XXXX  and everything. My parents were at home and keep interrupting that it is a spam but I still believed that this was the real government/police and believed that I will be able to get the money back once I am proved to be innocent as that is what she told me. After the call, I finally told my parents about the total amount of money and what happened, and we finally called the XXXX  XXXX XXXX and Zelle for the spam report Bank recently denied my claim since I was the one who authorized the transactions even though that was not my will and recommended me to contact the receivers, which is impossible since they are scammers.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation