HONOLULU (Eagle News) – The Hawaii Attorney General Office has issued a warning to residents statewide that phone scammers are posing as agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and allegedly telling potential victims they owe unpaid fines.

The scammers also threaten callers of potentially being arrested unless they immediately make a payment in cryptocurrency or other methods.  In addition, the perpetrators use “scripts” to extract valuable personal information from their victims.

The scammers have been “spoofing” a Hawaii Department of the Attorney General phone number (808) 586-1282 in an apparent attempt to lend fraudulent authenticity to their scam.

Spoofing makes false information appear on a phone’s caller ID, usually a fake local number or, as in this case, a local government law enforcement agency.

“Law enforcement agencies, including the Department of the Attorney General and the FBI, will never — and I repeat, never — call Hawaii residents on the phone demanding them to transmit money, whether in the form of cryptocurrency, an anonymous payment card, a wire transfer, or any other means, in order to avoid imminent arrest,” said State Attorney General Anne Lopez.  “These people are criminal scammers.  Immediately hang up the phone, do not call them back, and under no circumstances reveal personal information or send them money.”

Anyone who might have fallen victim to these phone scammers must contact the Department of the Attorney General’s Investigations Division at (808) 586-1240.

(Alfred Acenas, Hawaii-Pacific Bureau, Eagle News Service)