Police Uncover Fake DEA Agent Phone Scam

Batavia police reported a bizarre incident in which a man claiming to be a Drug Enforcement Administration representative in Washington, D.C., tried to get a caller to admit to a Xanax purchase over the Internet.

The phony DEA scam received national attention about two years ago, but this recent report is rare to the Tri-Cities area.

According to a report filed at 9:21 a.m. Sept. 19 in the 1000 block of Schonback Court in Batavia, a woman reported to police that she received a phone call from a man who said he was a Drug Enforcement Administration representative in Washington, D.C. The man told the woman he had information that she had purchased Xanax via the Internet, which is illegal.

When the pseudo-DEA man was asked for the IP address of the order, he hung up.

Batavia police recovered the phone number from caller ID and spoke to the offender, who admitted he did not have a warrant for the victim and hung up. Washington D.C. DEA later advised Batavia police that federal officials are aware of the impersonator and are "tracking him," Batavia police reports said.

According to an article on TMZ and other websites, the way the scam works is the DEA impersonator tells the victim that he or she is under indictment from a foreign country for trying to purchase illegal drugs online. The caller tells the victim he can make the charge go away or tells the victim he or she must pay a fine to have the case expunged.