Immigration Law
Immigration lawyers continue to fight scammers
Federal agents detain a person after he exited a court hearing in immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Scammers are continuing to target immigration lawyers by stealing their identities and offering fraudulent services to clients.
Angel Leal Jr., who practices immigration law in Doral, Florida, recently told NBC News that his image, name and voice were cloned with artificial intelligence to scam immigrants seeking help with their status.
In these schemes, scammers manipulated Leal’s social media videos and website to lure immigrants with false promises that they could get citizenship without an exam or an immediate work permit, Leal said. Conversations began on social media but would move to WhatsApp, and scammers would then ask immigrants to pay for the fake services through a money transfer platform.
“When that happens, the person falls for it,” Leal told NBC News.
He was forced to close all his WhatsApp channels and hire a company to help identify and take down fake social media profiles impersonating him and his law firm.
The FBI in Chicago issued a public warning in May about scammers who were posing as immigration lawyers or law enforcement officials to steal money from immigrants.
“Individuals will direct victims in order to pay a ‘bond,’ and that’s to make it so they don’t go to jail,” Robert Richardson, who is with the FBI’s Chicago field office, told ABC News last month.
Last summer, the ABA also received at least a dozen separate reports of scammers using its name, logo or office address to promise immigration legal services that were never performed, often charging thousands of dollars. In at least two of the reports, victims were recruited through Facebook.
See also:
Fake immigration lawyers scam clients out of $100K, prosecutors say
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