Hilton Head woman falls victim to romance scam involving fake ICE detention
In a twisted take on a romance scam, a Hilton Head Island woman lost $300 after fraudsters said her “boyfriend” had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The 74-year-old woman on north-end Hilton Head called police Jan. 22, saying her supposed boyfriend had planned to fly from Auburn, Alabama, to the Lowcountry to meet up with her.
But after the boyfriend never showed up, she got a call from “people claiming to be ICE agents” who alleged he had been detained at the Atlanta airport. The so-called agents asked for money, presumably for the man’s release, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office incident report.
The woman had sent the scammers $300 in Walmart gift cards, the report says. She told police she “was worried about her boyfriend being detained by ICE and that she would be in trouble as well.”
Adding to the scam’s believability, the woman said, was a phone call with a man claiming to be her boyfriend’s son, who allegedly lived in the United Kingdom and had sent $200 to contribute to his father’s fail.
The deputy had previously spoken with the woman as she had been a victim of “multiple phone scams,” the report says. She lives on Hilton Head with her adult daughter, who spoke with police about the family’s ongoing attempts to shield her from phone scams.
Scam tactics in the Hilton Head area
Coming at a time of high nationwide tensions over ICE operations, the con combined a typical romance scam with the also-popular tactic of impersonating law enforcement. These impersonators use fake threats of outstanding arrest warrants or missed jury duty to convince their targets to send money, often through Bitcoin or gift cards.
These scam methods are common in Beaufort County. Both elderly and non-elderly residents fall victim to fraud as the tactics change and grow more advanced.
Local police have advised residents they will never solicit money — and fraud experts say to watch out for red flags like unsolicited phone calls, a sense of urgency to make payments and the insistence on paying through unusual means like gift cards or cryptocurrency.
