The caller does not give you a number to check. He tells you what to search for.

Most impersonation scams fall apart the moment you say you will ring back and check. This one is built around that instinct rather than against it.

The script, as the FTC described it on 22 October, begins with a call from someone claiming to work there. A phone has been registered under your name and number, they say, and it is being used to run scams in another country. Cooperate or the number gets deactivated. You are then transferred to a police officer to file a report. If you sound doubtful, the officer encourages you to hang up and call the police yourself, and helpfully tells you what to type into a search engine to find the number. You do the searching. It feels like verification. Whoever picks up is part of the same operation.

After that it tightens. They want your ID and personal details for the report. They want the whole thing kept secret, including from your family. Eventually you are told you are under arrest for the scams your number was linked to and will have to travel abroad unless you pay a security deposit.

Four things a genuine FTC employee will never do: ask you to send money, hand you to someone who does, threaten to disconnect your phone, or tell you to keep the conversation quiet. That last one is the cleanest tell, because secrecy has no legitimate purpose and every fraudulent one. A different FTC impersonation script was going round in July with fake badge photos, same ending. Report either at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. This particular con stays on the phone, which is the one place no PC tool reaches, but if a call like it ever steers you towards installing something so they can "show you the problem", Tendvane's Safety check is what lists the remote-access software left behind afterwards.