Jul 20, 2011
This scam is quite polished, and it is continuing as of July, 2011,
I received a call today from a fast-talking man with a moderate hispanic accent, probably of Caribbean origin (Columbia? Dominican Republic?), although his vocabulary and delivery were very well practiced and suggested that he was an authentic DEA agent.
He began by saying that the DEA had credit card transaction records establishing that I illegally purchased hydrocodone in 2007 from an online pharmacy that was under investigation for importing drugs from the Dominican Republic. (I was aware that the DEA had pressured patients to finger online pharmacies, so I remained attentive). He then cited an official-sounding case number, and said that people who purchased from that pharmacy who were not cooperating with the government were being arrested, and that over 500 people in California were looking at prison time. However, with my cooperation, he would file papers dismissing my case. I would have to pay a fine of $1800. He then asked me if I understood what he'd said, and I said "yes".
I asked him how all of this would work. He said that he wanted to see me in his office, which he said was a government office in the harbor district of Los Angeles (I'm obscuring the exact name of the community, but this is a well-known section of Los Angeles with a major arterial street called "Gaffey"). I asked him if I had to bring the money, and he said yes. I told him that I didn't have that kind of money (actually true) and gave a sympathetic reason (also true), and he then said that the fine could be reduced with special cooperation for persons lacking any criminal history, to $450.
He then gave me an address on Gaffey Street, and he stated that yes, this was a US DOJ/DEA office (at this point, I'm thinking that I'm dealing with a corrupt DEA agent who is shaking people down based on patient records seized from some clinic somewhere). He said that he would call me back in 20 minutes, and that he would give me instructions for making payment and filling out paperwork. I asked him if I had to pay cash, and he said "yes" (this immediately confirmed him as either a scammer or a corrupt DEA agent). He said that if I did not answer his call, he would assume that I was planning to escape justice, and that a cordon of my neighborhood would be formed to ensure my arrest (another sure proof that this was a scam, because this would be bizarre waste of resources to go after what could be a legitimate pain patient!). He said that he was sure I would want to avoid this kind of public disgrace, and he was hoping for my cooperation. I said, "oh sure, I will help any way I can!"
I asked him for his name (which he had not volunteered) and he said "Thomas M. Harrigan" (a highly unusual name for an hispanic gentleman, I thought). He then gave me a web link which pointed to a photo and bio of a well-known DEA agent of that name. While I was on the computer, I asked him if he would be there when I brought the money, and he said "no" (an indicator that this was a non-government extortionist, as a corrupt DEA agent could be expected to use his person, badge, office, and color of authority to make an in-your-face demand for a payoff). I then got off the phone.
As I was sitting at the computer, I typed in a query that quickly brought me to whocallsme.com, and to this thread! I let out a nervous chuckle when I saw that the name "Harrigan" and the date "2007" here. Needless to say, although my phone rang twice in the next half hour, I did not answer it, although if I had, I would have given the caller the link to the DEA news release advising of his own extortion scam.
Please keep in mind, if you receive such a call as the foregoing described, you could be dealing with either a corrupt police official OR a private criminal or extortion gang. But you can be sure, for all kinds of reasons, that you are not listening to a legitimate investigator making a legitimate call in connection with a criminal investigation. There are so many reasons that you can be sure of this that all I can say is, if you're not sure why, you need to bone up on your grade school civics lessons, especially topics related to your right to appear before a judge or magistrate and to be found guilty of a crime before you would be assessed any fine (this is true even when you pay a traffic fine, but you can waive your right to appear in court for minor infractions). If you're college educated, you're probably also aware that your health records on file with health care providers, including online pharmacies, are protected by HIPAA, so the DEA can't use such information to establish your guilt or innocence of any crime. Further unless you intended to obtain prescription drugs by fraud, you simply have not committed any crime, regardless of how interested the DEA may be in prosecuting your health care provider.
If you get a call like this, I hope that you are suspicious enough to come to this website, but don't automatically assume you have the same scammer that I did. You could in fact be dealing with a corrupt cop, and what you need to do or not do may vary slightly in that case. In the end, though, you will not meet anyone, say anything incriminating, sigh anything, or pay anyone any money UNLESS you are doing this under the supervision of legitimate police. Get a grip, and be glad that this sort of extortion can only work if you're unreasonably scared, unusually ignorant, drug addled, or some combination of these.