CFA: Extortion scam targeting residents

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is alerting you to a phone call you might get from a DEA special agent impersonator.

Call 12 for Action first learned of the scam from a Cranston couple who was targeted.

"He said, I'm onto you for selling drugs.  And I said, what?" Marie Charpentier thought she heard wrong, but then the caller identified himself as a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency.

He claimed Marie was illegally purchasing or selling drugs online, and unless she paid a fine, agents were coming to her home to arrest her.

After digging a little deeper, we found out that call was part of a much bigger international extortion scheme.

"He said, you could go to jail for this, and I said, I didn't do anything.  How could I go to jail," said Charpentier.

Call 12 for Action called back the number that appeared on the Charpentier's caller ID.

It had a Washington, D.C. area code of 202.

The person who answered claimed to be from the Drug Enforcement Agency, but when he was pressed for more information he hung up.

After speaking with the real Drug Enforcement Agency, we found out this is a widespread scam that has targeted thousands of people.

In most cases, the scammers stole their victim's personal information off of pharmaceutical websites that they've used to legally purchase prescription drugs.

The DEA also tells us, that most of the scammers use stolen American cell phones with the 202 area code to appear to be from a federal agency in Washington, D.C.

The thieves also use real names of DEA agents that they got from the official government website.

Most of the calls have been traced to the Dominican Republic.