A Call From DHS Today. (I'm Canadian)

Sorry that's what I get for not reading the whole thread. Perhaps you should contact your own government offices and ask why the US has jurisdiction in Canada. Seems very odd to me?

[edit on 4/23/2009 by Blaine91555]

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
He requested all kinds of information on my recent activities in the past 6 months.

~Keeper

Since he refused to name himself, you should give him nothing but the end of conversation. Sounds like a real joke.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by MajesticJax

 

No, it wasn't any type of joke, not a Private number but it showed up as a government number.

As far as his questions I simply told him that he had no right to enquire about such things and he could look at my application for the course which states all the necessary information and reasons for taking the course.

He was actually quite persistent and said that refusal to cooperate would result in further investigation by local authorities.

I'm a little skeptic about that part, I don't think DHS has any sort of leway in little ol' New Brunswick.

I've also received email from the FBI enquiring about the issue, but they simply wanted to make sure that I would not be participating in this course in the US and wondered if I would be submitting an application to open Gunsmithing shops in the US as I am already a business owner there.~Keeper

Someone is yanking your chain sir. The FBI DOES NOT EMAIL PEOPLE. If they wanted to get information from you they would show up in person or have you picked up and brought to them at one of your place's of law.
As far as the DHS I am not sure how thing's have changed with the new president and all. BUT they are held to a standard of law regardless of who they are speaking to. (common citizen's ;not law breakers or person's previously incarcerated)
The fact that they are behaving so covertly may mean that someone is trying to get info on you and doesn't actually work for them at all.
You should contact your local law personel and ask them to help verify this. It sounds as if you are being scammed by someone wanting personal information on you. Information that can be used for identity theft etc.
Again if the authorities here had questions for you they would go through your persons of law and/or work with them to get the answer's that are claimed to be needed. GET SOME HELP.

P.S.
When you turned in/ got information on the papers for the corespondance course was it online? If so you have your answer right there. It is SO easy for people to tap information online it isn't funny.

As said earlier, the FBI does not email. It's also against the law here in the U.S. to impersonate an officer of the law. If you suspect an officer or agent is not really an officer or agent and you ask for identification and they don't show you, then that should automatically have raised a flag. When the "DHS" called you and you asked for info and they wouldn't give it, it should've raised a flag that it probably isn't a legit call.

There are several services out there that can spoof or even make a phone number appear to come from anywhere, including the DC area. I had a friend use that service on me more than once, but I'm too smart for that. Anyways, whether your friends admit it or not, you're being pranked.

[edit on 23-4-2009 by _BoneZ_]

You need to immediately report that e-mail to the FBI's Cyber Crimes Division, because there in fact stands a very high possibility of it being forged. When the FBI has specific questions for you to answer, they will typically place a Phone Call to you, and then give you a Reference Number (at the very least), and/or they will arrive to discuss whatever pertinent issues with you in Person. A Local LEO will generally be notified of any Federal Activity within your location as well, as often times Uniformed Officers accompany FBI Agents so as to lessen the risk of Impersonation problems.

I wonder why we haven't heard from the op in a couple of days, hmmmm. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, and op, if we don't hear from you in a reasonable amount of time, (you are a pretty prolific poster, so you should see this soon), I think I'm gonna let the mods know.

1). Posting: You will not post any material that is knowingly false, misleading, or inaccurate.

If you did perpetrate this whole thing, (remember, we found several inconsistencies with your story straight off the bat - when asked to produce a picture of the callerid you did not, when asked for a copy of the email from the Feds, you gave us some lame a** email that looked like you wrote it yourself, (WITH grammatical errors to boot), and NOW you dissappear from the thread. NO WAY PAL!

Looks like we were a little smarter than you, huh?

[edit on 24/4/09 by MajesticJax]

reply to post by MajesticJax


You know the more and more I go back over this, I am wondering the general reasoning behind such a prank whither it be on us or the OP, there really seems to be no rhyme nor reason behind it, if it was a prank by one of the OP's friends, they really need to get a life as it was poorly executed and really not that funny, if it was a prank on all of us by the OP to test our paying attention skills, it also failed miserably as all it did was get us all riled up and looking for reasons it was false.

But i'm with you as to where is the OP now? I'm giving some leeway as people do get busy but.................... the almighty but starts to creep in with each passing hour.

reply to post by MajesticJax


He hasn't came back to the thread for one simple reason. The Feds must of got him. They followed him to ATS saw he was running his mouth. So they swooped him up in the process of water boarding him now.

It could happen. I feel that it is a plausible scenario. The FBI contacting an individual that owns property in the US and is now applying for a course in becoming a gunsmith. It is very likely that it is a prank from a friend or even a scam. But I really believe the FBI part is plausible.

reply to post by Ant4AU


The OP participates on a lot of the boards here, and I can't picture them just stopping.

Could be that this person is researching the call and the e-mail, and making heads or tails before getting back.

I gotta say I've seen the op on a lot of threads, and he seems legit. I noticed another poster on here from N.B.and one of the Mods is also from here as am I. Thats a lot of New Brunswickers on a site like this. Maybe the F.B.I. are monitoring this site and that D.H.S. chick talking about the borders the other day suspects N.B. as a hotbed of you know what. So the Op set off alarms. And for all you doubters, the op will be back on.

It is standard practice now, not just in standard US Civil Court Subpoenas and Cease & Desist letters, but in normal US Government Agency communications to contain a "Gag Clause" that prevents the recipient from publishing or discussing the contents of the Letter or Order.

Recipients of US Agency NSLs (National Security Letters) are forbidden, or "gagged," from ever revealing the letters' existence to anyone, under threat of being in violation of US Law (Patriot Act). The FBI's systemic abuse of this power has been documented extensively by a Department Of Justice investigation.

It very well could be that the OP was contacted again with one of these Gag Clauses and simply can't discuss it further.

There's no fault in extending benefit of the doubt to one's Cannuck neighbors.

Originally posted by pigwithoutawig
I gotta say I've seen the op on a lot of threads, and he seems legit. I noticed another poster on here from N.B.and one of the Mods is also from here as am I. Thats a lot of New Brunswickers on a site like this. Maybe the F.B.I. are monitoring this site and that D.H.S. chick talking about the borders the other day suspects N.B. as a hotbed of you know what. So the Op set off alarms. And for all you doubters, the op will be back on.

This is why I am leaning twords, the OP got busy and couldn't respond for some reason. It just seems a bit iffy given the (lack of) supporting documentation.

Something is amiss, and I'm hoping that it is just a cruel prank.

reply to post by KaiBosh


I apologize for being away folks, I had a busy couple of days. Now I've contacted the FBI cybercrimes division or whatever as suggested by another poster, and also my local branch of the RCMP.

Apparently you were all right. This scam has been going around for the past couple of months. People claiming to be from DHS or the FBI, asking you for information in regards to courses or recent US visits.

They apparently are looking for any type of information they can use to pick up your identity and use it for various things as we are all aware of.

Luckily I never replied to the email so I dont' have to worry about that. I apologize for wasting everybody's time, but I do thank you for throwing me in the right direction to figure this out.

The FBI informed me tha they DO NOT email people and ask for personal information. It would be a visit most likely or a phone call in very rare cases.

As far as that "agent" of DHS, apparently they have a little call center with software that picks up your information on the internet ( I can probably thank my daughter and her online shopping for that ) and then compile lists of numbers to call, use these scare tactics to get your SIN, address and other things.

Anyway, again I would like to apologize if I have wasted anybody's time, it was not my intent.

ATS--1
Scammers--0

~Keeper

[edit on 4/25/2009 by tothetenthpower]

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Well we;re glad that it was just a scam... If it had been an actual investigation you may not have been back to tell the tale

reply to post by vkey08


yes I appreciate your concern, I was reading the posts and felt kind of bad .

However I would like again to thank my fellow ATS bretheran for fearing for my safety while I was away .

~Keeper

reply to post by tothetenthpower


How could you be wasting the time of anybody with your story?

If anything we will all be more aware of this type of scam.

I greatly appreciate YOU, for sharing your story with us!

But... how did they know you were taking the gunsmithing course?
Can they... see you? lol

At first I was thinking that this must be some sort of a scam - someone trying to scare you, maybe squeeze some money out of you. Who knows?

But if this guy knew much about you, he must have had some source close to you - or he knew you himself.

It doesn't make any sense at all for the US DHS to investigate a Canadian citizen. They can't even keep up with their own citizens, much less those in another country. It makes about as much sense as the RCMP investigating me, just because I was doing something that made them nervous.

I would guess that if this were a legitimate investigation, the DHS would make arrangements with Canadian authorities to have them interview you. I'm quite sure they wouldn't call you directly, sincce they have no jurisdiction over you, no way of offering you a serious threat to force you to talk.

If anyone refuses to identify themselves, you're perfectly correct to tell them to go pound sand.

Originally posted by RidhyaBut... how did they know you were taking the gunsmithing course? Can they... see you? lol

This reminds me of the Psychic Hotlines in the 1980's and 1990's. Remember the Psychic Friend's Network or Miss Cleo?

Well, how it works is that once they have your Name & CC# that you provide them to use the service, they have all sorts of transaction history on you. Oh, you just bought a Crib at Target and Diapers at Walmart...so the Psychic would "sense that a recent arrival is coming in the family" at which point the person would be impressed and volunteer more information the "Psychic" could use.

So, if someone has your CC# and they are trying to get more info out of you so as to commit Identity Theft, then they are going to need to know your addresses, employer, Mother's Maiden Name, etc. So, they use what they do know from the activity on your CC to trick you into giving up that information.

I'm willing to bet the farm that the OP paid for his Gunsmithing Courses with his Credit Card...and that among the questions that were asked by the "DHS Agent" were about his employer, his address and his Mother's Maiden Name.

Old Scam...just a new twist.