Yesterday, I got a bunch of missed calls from a Washington D.C. number. I finally picked up, and the person claimed to be from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). They said they were calling because I ignored a formal letter they mailed me last week. (I actually ran out to check my mailbox while on the phone—obviously nothing was there).
To prove they were legit, they actually spoofed the real FTC number to call me on a second line, so the caller ID literally said "Federal Trade Commission". They also read off my actual personal info. However, they didn't stay on that original FTC line for very long, claiming they 'had to keep that number available for other US citizens.' After that, they told me someone stole my identity and opened a phone number at the Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport in China, and that number was now being used to spam Chinese Americans.
They gave me a two-hour deadline to get a "report confirmation" from the Xiamen police. If I didn't, they said they were going to cancel my current phone number and completely ruin my credit. I was kind of panicking and asked if I could just call my local US police instead. They had an answer ready for that immediately: they said I could, but since the "crime" happened in China, the US police wouldn't have jurisdiction to investigate fast enough to save my credit score.
Then, an FTC "supervisor" offered to do me a favor and connect me directly to the Chinese police through an "overseas emergency line." Once connected, the fake Chinese police told me I had to file the report in person. When I told them I live in the US and obviously couldn't do that, they conveniently said we could just do it over Zoom.
This is where it gets really wild.
I joined the Zoom call and there was a guy standing there in a police uniform and a face mask, with two other people in the background. They then immediately turned their camera off, claiming the "reporting room doesn't allow recording," but they demanded that I keep my camera on. They also told me I had to be in a completely quiet room so no "third party voices" were recorded. Looking back, they were just isolating me so I couldn't ask anyone for help.
Then came the main trap: they told me to share my screen so they could make sure no one was secretly coaching me on what to say.
I actually almost did it, but my computer's screen share completely failed. That technical glitch honestly saved me. It gave me a second to actually think, and I suddenly realized how insanely sketchy the whole thing was. I closed the Zoom, hung up the phone, and didn't give them a dime.
Lesson learned: If you get a call like this, HANG UP. Look up the real authorities' contact info and report them (which I did).