Scammers threatening vulnerable visa holders with arrest and deportation

Indian families are being targeted by several new scams threatening deportation if they do not pay money.

The scammers got away with faking the High Commission's phone number. Source: AAP

Scammers have swindled almost $200,000 from migrants and temporary-visa holders through just one particular scam in the past seven months.

The scammers are targeting people across the country, but they have picked vulnerable groups -- in particular, Indian families. 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has received more than 300 reports of scammers targeting migrants and temporary-visa holders since March.

Pretending to be from the Department of Immigration, they claim there are problems with people's paperwork or visa status and demand money to fix it or they will be deported.

ACCC deputy chairwoman Delia Rickard said some are even going as far as threatening the arrest of loved ones.                                   

"We suspect they are getting a lot of personal information off social media. It seems that at least some of the scammers can speak various Indian languages, because, certainly, they will sometimes offer to provide a translator if the person doesn't have a good command of English,” Ms Richard said.

“It may be they just have an in to information about this community."

Jatinder Singh moved his family to Australia from India only five months ago.

Hoping for a fresh start, the last thing he expected was to fall victim to scammers.

For two-and-a-half hours, they spoke to him on the phone, pretending to be from the High Commission, claiming he had incorrectly filled out his visa application.

Source: Pixabay/geralt CC0

Mr Singh said he was worried for his family. 

"They say, 'If you don't have money, then we deport you tomorrow morning. We tell to police, and they deport you back to India, and you'll never come back over here in this country'."

The scammers got away with faking the High Commission's phone number.

They even had Mr Singh's private details, including his passport number.

He said he was tricked into thinking it was all fair and made two payments of $980 each via wire transfer.

"We think that this country is much better than from there [India, that we can] stay away from these kinds of scams, these kinds of corruption. But the same thing happens over here in five months. So it hurts a little bit."

Ms Rickard from the ACCC said if anyone received a call like Mr Singh's, the best advice was to simply hang up and report it to authorities. 

"The scammers are very concerned that you don't speak to anyone else.

“They'll try to tie up your landline and your mobile. They won't let you hang up, they won't let you talk to anyone,” she said.

“So they're trying to isolate people from their normal support services, that people they'd say, 'Hey, does this sound real?' So it's just a one-on-one conversation. The person is completely isolated, terrified, and instilling that fear makes it more likely that the person will pay."

She said if anyone asked to send money via wire transfers or iTunes gift cards, it was definitely a scam.