An immigrant couple living in Sioux Falls has been hit hard by scammers. Information Officer Sam Clemens says a 27-year-old woman tells police she was called on Saturday by someone claiming to be from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Clemens says the woman and her husband are applying for citizenship, and the caller said an investigation in their home country of India required an $11,000 security deposit for each of them in green-dot cards:

Clemens says the cards, which amount to untraceable money, were cashed, and while the woman realized she had been victimized, the $22,000 is gone. He says another Sioux Falls resident was recently defrauded out of several thousand dollars by someone claiming to be from the IRS.

Neither federal agency works this way and they don't deal in green-dot cards for payment.

If you get such a phone call, your best move is to find another number to contact the agency yourself, or to just hang up.

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