The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is warning registrants of new fraud schemes in which scammers impersonate DEA personnel and notify registrants that they are under investigation, presumably in an attempt to obtain personal information.

DEA has recently received reports of false letters and phone calls being used to contact both DEA registrants and non-registrants. It is not the DEA’s practice to call registrants regarding investigative matters. 

If you are contacted by a person purporting to work for DEA and stating that you are under investigation, please report the incident to the FBI at www.ic3.gov. You may also wish to submit the incident to the Federal Trade Commission, which takes reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and shares information with more than 3,000 law enforcement agencies. For any victims who have given personally identifiable information like a Social Security number or DEA registration number to a scammer, go to www.identitytheft.gov to learn how to protect against identity theft. Reporting these scams will help authorities find, arrest, and stop the criminals engaged in this fraud.

As a reminder, DEA personnel will never contact registrants or members of the public to demand money or any other form of payment, will never request personal or sensitive information, and will only notify people of a legitimate investigation or legal action in person or by official letter. In fact, federal law enforcement officers are prohibited from demanding cash or gift cards from a member of the public.

 The best deterrence against these bad actors is awareness and caution.