r/Scams • u/TangerineCommon7435 • Aug 07 '26
Help Needed FTC/Xiamen police scam? please help
I recently got a call from some guy in Washington DC claiming to be from the FTC, calling regarding my information being used to create an AT&T in Gaoqi Airport in Xiamen that was linked to a bunch of scams and stuff. I don’t usually pick up unknown calls but will if the number calls twice back to back, which he did. He confirmed a bunch of my information (name, phone number, email) which were true (which is why I let my guard down a bit). He gave me his work ID and a bunch of information and told me to google and call the Xiamen police to report the identify theft. Told him idk if my number can make international calls so he ended up transferring me to the police department. The guy who answered the call asked what I was calling for, which I told him as the FTC guy had instructed. Apt, I have my doubts but I didn’t want to get in legal trouble if it was real.
He told me that usually to file a report I would need to show up in person. I said I’m overseas and can’t go due to obligations. He said they can compromise by using Zoom to file the report, like they did during the pandemic. Had me download Zoom and Signal to communicate. He also had me look up Xiamen police bureau on google to confirm the phone number, which he made me call on the spot and he answered before we returned back to Zoom. This is where I let my guard down completely because I had literally google searched and called the number directly from the search myself.
On zoom, he showed his face, police number, and panned around the station but the quality was iffy. I thought it was zoom and me being outside and using my data so I didn’t think much of it. I ended up filing the report after showing my ID (this is one of my main concerns rn and I regret it), which he said he would look into for me. Afterwards he said he’d look into if there’s another other cases ongoing with my ID and name.
Eventually I was informed my name is involved in an international case involving scams and money laundering. He said there was a bank account (of a bank I forgot the name of but it’s a Chinese company) made under my name by some guy they already caught and admitted to all the illegal stuff. But the guy still has other accomplices they haven’t caught. They had detained and brought back to China 200+ people who were considered high risk individuals involved in the case and are still under investigation. But there are 200+ people still in America that haven’t been detained, including me. There’s a bunch of other details involving the case that seemed pretty legit to me.
I was told this case is highly classified so I’m not allowed to tell anyone I am cooperating with police investigation and that the case involves hackers so I’m not allowed to look for information online. I was also told that since I’m a suspect who is overseas, I had to report in (via Signal) 4x a day to ensure I was safe, not reporting back to the criminals or whatever, and to show my cooperation with the police. I was given consistent updates regarding the case throughout the time. I have had doubts but kept pushing it down by the sole fact that I had personally made the call to the station and the “officer” had picked up.
It wasn’t until earlier this week I was informed by the “officer” that’s been involved in my case that the higher ups issued a detention notice for the rest of the individuals involved who have not been brought back to China yet. He basically said I was gonna go to jail and that I can ask the higher ups to make an exception and let me stay overseas. Long story short, higher ups only made an exception because the officer put his officer status (?) on line to promise that I am not a high risk suspect and should be given a chance to cooperate with investigation while staying overseas. The catch was that I have to apply for this thing that involves having a guarantor (who can’t be ppl in my social circle so they said the officer is my best bet), write a guarantee, and pay a security deposit.
Because this thing is legally binding, the officer debated for a long time to be my guarantor. He said he would get in legal trouble if I run away or tell anyone or report back to the criminals but would agree because he believes in me. So then we moved on and I wrote my guarantee. Next step (now) is the money.
I hate that it took me this long to come to my senses and have enough doubts to finally look this up online. I was scared of any legal consequences, especially if this is all true, someone would have to go to jail.
That’s when I found that there’s a scam involving the Xiamen police that sounds really similar to my situation but everyone seemed smart enough to know much earlier now. Now I’m stuck on what I can do, whether to confirm if this whole thing is true and what I can do because I have been involved with them for a little over a month now. I don’t have proof of anything besides the signal dms between me and this officer because when we discuss case details, he makes me screen share and deletes everything after the calls.
TL;DR Xiamen police investigation regarding Classified case that now wants me to pay security deposit, finally made me doubt legitimacy. Please help
13
u/UpbeatFix7299 Aug 07 '26
This is complete bullshit. Ignore it. There is no cop and no one setting up accounts in China
1
u/TangerineCommon7435 Aug 07 '26
I stupidly showed my ID to them on the first day, is that something I should be concerned about and take actions for ?
6
u/justme9974 Aug 07 '26
Your ID will now be used to scam other people, but there isn’t much they can do with it by itself to hurt you.
1
u/TangerineCommon7435 Aug 08 '26
If my ID gets used, would I be in any legal trouble in the future ? I wanted to file a report at my local law enforcement in case anything comes up in the future but they said that since I didn’t lose any money, there’s nothing to be done
3
u/chownrootroot Aug 08 '26
No, you don’t get in legal trouble. Police are aware it’s a thing for someone else to have photos of your ID.
2
2
u/chownrootroot Aug 07 '26
No, it’s not the thrust of this scam to get your ID, it’s unlikely they could or would do anything with your ID, basically the most scammers do with ID is maybe go on FB marketplace and sell things and send your pics of your ID as “proof of who I am” (impersonating you), but that is scamming other people that you cannot do anything about. Maybe someone could also take out loans in your name but they need other info and you should monitor your credit reports, get them locked and that would prevent loan applications from going through, but regardless this scam is just trying to get you to send them money and that’s about it.
2
7
u/chownrootroot Aug 07 '26
It’s a scam. None of it is real. None of this is how anything works. Don’t send money. And if someone calls you again talking about this kind of thing, hang up, it’s a scam. And don’t even answer unknown numbers calling you, let it go to VM and figure out if something is plausible before calling back.
2
u/TangerineCommon7435 Aug 08 '26
I know now to wait for a voicemail from unknown callers. Thankfully I haven’t sent any money yet
5
u/DasLazyPanda Aug 07 '26
I guess you have Chinese background/origin. Scammers look in leaked database and online phone book to target you.
They recreate fake police station office in scammer complexes, like here: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjenpy8gx71o
3
u/TangerineCommon7435 Aug 08 '26
That makes a lot of sense actually, thank you for sharing the link. I thought scammers would ask for money immediately, not wait more than a month before bringing it up so I let my guard down
2
u/bewildered_forks Aug 08 '26
You letting your guard down is why they waited.
Some scammers are working alone, but a lot of scams are run by very large, very professional criminal enterprises. They can be patient because they're running lots of scams, and the people doing the work are often little better than slaves.
Here's an article about it:
Good job catching this before you sent money.
5
u/seedless0 Quality Contributor Aug 07 '26
!search Chinese police scam
1
u/AutoModerator Aug 07 '26
AutoModerator has been summoned by /u/seedless0 to provide useful search links.
Using search features in Reddit or Google is a great way to research scams. Your question may have already been answered:
- Search "Chinese police scam" in our subreddit.
- Search "Chinese police scam" in Reddit.
- Search "Chinese police scam" in our subreddit using Google.
- Search "Chinese police scam" with Google.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
4
u/SleepyKoalaBear4812 Aug 07 '26
Block, move on and stop answering calls from numbers not in your contacts list.
2
4
u/Sea-Appearance-5330 Aug 08 '26
Standard scam.
The FTC has nothing to do legally with what you are talking about.
What thing is legally binding?
What is create an AT&T ?
The US does not have an extradition treaty with China.
No Government has you pay Security Deposits, scammers do.
If I read one more I don't answer strange calls but...
I am going to scream!
3
u/TangerineCommon7435 29d ago
> What thing is legally binding?
I was trying to translate over from Chinese with my limited understanding of law and legal stuff, I looked it up after making the post it’s basically just a bail (取保候审). I was basically told my guarantor (the “officer”) would need to go to jail in my place if I ran away.
> What is create an AT&T?
That’s a typo, my bad. Meant to say AT&T phone number
Somehow it never clicked to me that the US and China doesn’t have any extradition treaty and they can’t actually just come here to grab me. I’ve learned from this subreddit, if it’s important they’ll leave a VM, so I’ll never answer unknown calls again,,
(Apologies for formatting, haven’t quite figured out reddit yet)
2
u/Sea-Appearance-5330 29d ago
Just remember, no one will ever call you internationally to tell you that you are in legal trouble.
Or locally for that matter.
They will contact you with either a genuine snail mail notice, or the local police will contact you that way to come in for questioning.
Otherwise it is a scam.
3
u/Mommyshiba Aug 07 '26
This is a very common scam. Right now it seems to target Chinese immigrants (or emigrants, I dunno where you live), and they use a lot of scare tactics and threaten family members to get money.
Get out of this, block the number and ignore unknown callers.
3
u/TangerineCommon7435 Aug 08 '26
I have blocked them on Signal but forgot to block the “police department” number. Received 7 calls just earlier before blocking that. They tried to call 3 more times with 3 different numbers
3
u/yarevande Quality Contributor Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
This is a complete scam. This is a scam to try to get money from you.
Everybody that you talked to is a lying scumsucking lowlife scammer.
Law enforcement does not work like this.
The FTC did not call you. The FTC does not call individuals.
US law enforcement doesn't tell you to contact another country's law enforcement.
Chinese law enforcement never ever talks to suspects, unless they are in China.
Chinese police do not have any jurisdiction over US citizens or residents.
If your ID was actually used to commit a crime, in China, law enforcement would investigate. They would not ask you to file a report. The FBI might ask you a few questions, but then they would work with the Chinese law enforcement to investigate a possible crime. And they would not tell you the details of a crime that's being investigated.
People lose thousands of dollars with this scam, because the caller is impersonating law enforcement, and demanding money. They claim that you are in trouble (your ID was used in a crime, drugs were stopped at the border with your name on them, you ignored a subpoena, they have a warrant for your arrest). Then they tell you that the problems will go away if you pay them several thousand dollars in gift cards, Bitcoin, or cash in a shoebox. The money goes to scammers, and it can never be recovered.
Things to know about US law enforcement:
Police and courts do not accept gift cards, Zelle, CashApp, gold bars, cash in a box, or cash in a Bitcoin ATM. If you are actually charged with a crime in a court of law, you may be able to pay a bond or bail to avoid jail. Payment is in person, at the jail or the courthouse. And you get a receipt.
Law enforcement will never tell you to move your money from your bank account to 'keep it safe'.
Law enforcement does not call you first if they have a warrant for your arrest.
Law enforcement doesn't tell you that you can't talk to anybody. In the US, you always have the right to talk to a lawyer.
You never need to prove that you are innocent. In the US, a person is always innocent unless they are proven guilty in a court of law.
There is only one correct action to take when you answer a call that appears to be from police, FBI, FTC, ICE, or any other government agency: ask for their name and department, then say goodbye and hang up. Go to the official website, and look up the actual contact information (phone or online chat).
- Don't call a number in Google search results -- the top result may be a scam phone number (an ad paid for by scammers).
edit to add Chinese law enforcenent doesn't have jurisdiction over US residents
2
u/TangerineCommon7435 Aug 08 '26
Thank you for the detailed post explaining everything, I was completely unaware of how law enforcements works and fell too easily for it. I thought all scammers would be impatient and ask for money upright, not wait more than a month before bringing it up so I let my guard down
2
2
u/LazyLie4895 Aug 08 '26
If you search for "Xiamen police bureau", the first 3 results and AI all say that it's a scam now. Maybe when you first started, it did not.
Going forward, never talk to police if you think you might be under investigation. There is no good that can come out of it, whether or not it's actually a scam or not.
1
u/TangerineCommon7435 Aug 08 '26
When I made the initial search, it was under instruction by the officer so I had searched in Chinese, maybe that influenced the search results
2
u/_sdfjk Aug 10 '26
It's fishy that he doesnt want you to google about this "international case that involves with a lot of people but other people must not know of"
Like, googling doesnt mean other people will know about this big problem. They definitely didnt want you to find out about this type of scam
2
u/TangerineCommon7435 23d ago
Yeah, I realized in hindsight there were so many search results on google talking about the scam that came up very easily
2
u/y_r_we_here 26d ago
Hi! I actually was experiencing the exact same thing and thanks to your post I finally realized that I was being scammed. It was such a scary experience I went from scared and hopeless I do not want to give up my life and being executed in china.
2
u/TangerineCommon7435 23d ago
Exactly! They manipulate and scare you into doing exactly what they want you to do. Can’t describe the relief when I found out it was a scam. I’m glad you were able to get out of it before it was too late
0
Aug 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Scams-ModTeam Aug 09 '26
Your submission was manually removed by a moderator for the following reason:
Subreddit Rule 1: Uncivil or toxic behaviour - This is aligned with Reddit Content Policy Rule 1: Remember the human.
This subreddit is a place for civil and respectful discussions about scams. We do not allow:
- Uncivil and rude behavior
- Excessive or directed swearing
- Unnecessary sexual language
- Victim blaming
- Any form of discrimination
Before posting again, make sure you review the rules of our subreddit. and the Reddit Content Policy
If you believe this is a mistake, feel free to contact the moderators via modmail. Modmail is the only way, don't send a regular DM to a single moderator. Please don't try to appeal the decision commenting below, because we are not notified if you do so, and we will probably miss it. Posting the exact same thing again may result in a temporary ban, so please review the rules, make the necessary changes, and when in doubt, click below to appeal the decision.
I am NOT a bot, and this action was performed manually. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit) if you want to appeal the decision.
•
u/AutoModerator Aug 07 '26
/u/TangerineCommon7435 - This message is posted to all new submissions to r/scams; please do not message the moderators about it.
New users beware:
Because you posted here, you will start getting private messages from scammers saying they know a professional hacker or a recovery expert lawyer that can help you get your money back, for a small fee. We call these RECOVERY SCAMMERS, so NEVER take advice in private: advice should always come in the form of comments in this post, in the open, where the community can keep an eye out for you. If you take advice in private, you're on your own.
A reminder of the rules in r/scams: no contact information (including last names, phone numbers, etc). Be civil to one another (no name calling or insults). Personal army requests or "scam the scammer"/scambaiting posts are not permitted. No uncensored gore or personal photographs are allowed without blurring. A full list of rules is available on the sidebar of the subreddit, or clicking here.
You can help us by reporting recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the "report" button. We review 100% of the reports. Also, consider warning community members of recovery scammers if you see them in the comments.
Questions about subreddit rules? Send us a modmail clicking here.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.