{"id":1804,"date":"2024-01-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eaganimmigration.com\/common-scams-targeting-immigrants-how-to-avoid-them\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:28:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:28:38","slug":"common-scams-targeting-immigrants-how-to-avoid-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eaganimmigration.com\/en\/common-scams-targeting-immigrants-how-to-avoid-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Scams Targeting Immigrants & How to Avoid Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\nby Natalie McQuilkin<\/strong>\n\nThere are a variety of motives regarding the desire of many to obtain legal status in the United States. For example, they want to be reunited with their family, to find better jobs, or to escape the violence or poverty of their native countries. But the journey of obtaining legal status is no easy feat. It\u2019s a complicated journey dotted with many obstacles, like costly immigration services, long processing times, and preparations for nerve-wracking interviews. Throughout this complex process lies a hope that there would be an easier way to live a safe, comfortable life in the U.S. \u2013 and scammers have turned this hope into a money-making scheme.\n

The history of scammers targeting immigrants<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\nFor decades, scammers have preyed on immigrants hoping to create a secure life in the United States by promising their business will help immigrants bypass the costly immigration services and long wait times. <\/span>These scammers pose as professionals who you can trust, but in reality, they\u2019re funneling your money directly into their pockets.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\n\nThe bipartisan Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) was passed in in 1986, and according to Immigration History, this bill was a \u201cmulti-pronged system that provided amnesty for established residents, increased border enforcement, enhanced requirements of employers, and expanded guestworker visa programs.\u201d<\/span>1<\/span> Nearly 3 million people were received legal status from IRCA, but the bill also led to an explosion of scams.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\n\nAccording to Juan Manuel Pedroza\u2019s study, <\/span>Making noncitizens\u2019 rights real: Evidence from immigration scam complaints, <\/span><\/i>after IRCA was passed, there was a \u201csurge in demand for legal services,\u201d and \u201cgiven the large number of immigrants looking to adjust their status, trained legal professionals could not meet the rising demand.\u201d As a result, <\/span>\u201ccommunity organizations, \u2018lay lawyers,\u2019 and notaries each played a pivotal role in helping immigrants prepare for IRCA,\u201d according to the study.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\n\nUnfortunately, none of these people who posed as qualified professionals was actually legally qualified to help immigrants obtain status. The most prominent scammers during this time period were \u201c<\/span>notarios<\/span><\/i>.\u201d In Spanish, this word means \u201cnotaries,\u201d and Pedroza explains in his article that \u201cclients unfamiliar with U.S. law typically assume that notaries know best, in part because \u2018notario\u2019 is a false cognate commonly understood in Latin America as a seasoned lawyer.\u201d<\/span>2<\/span> As a result, immigrants put their trust in people who they thought were lawyers, only to find out that they had spent thousands of dollars for nothing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\n

What types of scams happen now?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\nScammers have become more innovative in targeting immigrants in recent years due to social media. In the 2010s, Oswaldo Rafael Cabrera <\/span>posed as an immigration attorney<\/span><\/b> on his social media accounts, advertisements, and even in interviews for Spanish-speaking news sources<\/span><\/b>, according to the <\/span>Los Angeles Times.<\/span><\/i>3<\/span><\/i> His business promised immigrants green cards and U.S. citizenship, but in reality, it scammed immigrants out of thousands of dollars.<\/span><\/b> The State of California Department of Justice reported that in 2017, Cabrera was charged with grand theft, attempted perjury, and conspiracy to violate the Immigration Consultants Act. He was sentenced to five years in prison.<\/span>4<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\n\nSadly, Cabrera\u2019s scheme is not the only one that has stolen thousands of dollars in savings from immigrants. The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office – District of Nevada found that in 2015, an Arizona man named Douglas Thayer created a business called U.S. Adult Adoption Services Inc. that <\/span>promised a direct pathway to U.S. citizenship when U.S. citizens adopted adult immigrants. <\/span><\/b>Thayer specifically targeted Asian and Latino immigrants and made more than $1 million from his scheme.<\/span>5<\/span> A man named Helaman Hansen created a similar scam that unfolded in seven different states, according to CBS Sacramento. His business, Americans Helping America Chamber of Commerce, <\/span>preyed upon Pacific Islander, Southeast Asian, and Latino immigrants by promising that once a U.S. citizen adopted them, they would become citizens a year later<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>6<\/span>\u00a0 Once a year had passed, those who had bought into the scam realized that these promises were just lies.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\n\nCertain scams can create a huge emotional toll on immigrants because they can involve the intimate aspects of their lives, too<\/span>. For years, Marcialito Biol Benitez, a Philippine national who lived in Los Angeles, operated a business that arranged marriages for immigrants and \u201cstaged fake wedding ceremonies,\u201d according to CBS Los Angeles.<\/span><\/b> His company rented out wedding venues and even hired ministers to conduct the ceremonies to make the clients believe the marriages and ceremonies were legitimate. Benitez also \u201cprepared and submitted false petitions, applications, and other documents to substantiate the sham marriages and secure adjustment of clients\u2019 immigration statuses.\u201d Benitez demanded his clients pay roughly $30,000 in cash, and over the course of six years, Benitez acquired more than 600 clients.<\/span>7<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\n\nBenitez\u2019s scam also exploited the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which is a self-petition for undocumented men and women who have been abused by their U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse. According to the District of Massachusetts\u2019 U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, \u201cBenitez\u2019s agency would assist certain clients \u2013 typically those whose spouses became unresponsive or uncooperative \u2013 with obtaining green cards under [VAWA] by claiming the undocumented clients had been abused by alleged American spouses.\u201d Benitez\u2019s company submitted fraudulent applications that included temporary restraining orders \u201cbased on fabricated domestic violence allegations.\u201d<\/span>8<\/span> In April 2023, Benitez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and immigration document fraud.<\/span>9<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\n\nSome of the most concerning schemes are those that require a client to falsely report a crime, which could create legal issues for them. This type of fraud has been found in businesses that encourage clients to pursue the <\/span>U visa<\/span><\/b>, which is designed for victims of a U.S-based crime and who report the crime to police<\/span>. <\/span><\/b>The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of Minnesota found that<\/span> in 2019, Yuridia Hernandez Linares planned a fake robbery and demanded her clients make false reports to police, stating that they were victims of the robbery. They victims were to corroborate the other stories. Linares even cut the clients with something sharp to look as if they had been attacked during the \u201crobbery.\u201d<\/span><\/b> She charged each of the clients $2,000 for the scheme. In 2020, Linares was charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud.<\/span>10<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\n\nIt\u2019s important to note that not all cases of immigration fraud are this extreme. Scams can be something as simple as someone impersonating a USCIS officer by using an email that looks legitimate. Scams can also look like receiving a job offer from a company that seems real.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\n

What are the most common scams?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\nAs of February 2023,\u00a0 the <\/span>Common <\/span><\/i>Scams webpage on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website identifies the following as the most common scams that target immigrants:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\n