Spread the word on ICE-phishing scams

My wife sent me a text this past week.

“I think I got an ice-fishing scam.”

“That’s pretty niche,” I texted back. “Stolen fishing rods on Facebook Marketplace? You Venmo some dude fifty bucks to drill a hole, and he never showed?”

Dad jokes, my son calls them. Of course, I’m dense and didn’t make the connection until she came home from work and dropped the letter on the kitchen counter.

It looked official-ish. It had the seal of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, cited federal statutes and listed a Washington, D.C. address. It included a case number and a QR code to “contact an ICE officer.” It warned of fines, imprisonment and even removal from the United States. Apparently, she’d failed to update her change of address and was subject to a background check.

Three months ago, I might have laughed it off. But in a moment when immigration raids are part of the local news cycle, a letter invoking ICE lands differently, especially in a household with two last names, Ahmed and Saucedo, associated with immigrant communities.

Was the letter fake? You bet. There were the telltale signs of fraud: awkward phrasing, threats of arrest for forwarding the notice to a third party and an urgent demand to scan a QR code for a “background check.”

But the more important question is not whether this letter was a scam.

The more important question is whether it works. And why.

According to a July 2025 Pew Research Center report, 73% of U.S. adults say they have experienced some form of online scam or cyberattack. Roughly 21% report losing money.

Related: Scams target Minnesota’s immigrant communities

Related: Scams target Minnesota’s immigrant communitiesAnd while the problem is pervasive, it isn’t evenly distributed.

Pew’s research also found disparities in exposure to and victimization by scams. Black and Hispanic adults report experiencing multiple types of scams at higher rates (30%) than white adults (18%). Lower-income Americans report greater exposure as well. What does this add up to? Well, scammers don’t need to invent panic if they can simply harvest it.

In the context of recent immigration “actions,” we know scammers flock to racial and socioeconomic neighborhoods where vulnerability already exists. A fake immigration enforcement notice is not a random template. It’s calibrated to piggyback on this vulnerability and mimics the language of a government agency to create the illusion of legitimacy. It performs the power of these institutions. That power, legitimate or not, is real. And for many immigrants and first-generation families, that power operates under two competing emotions:

You can trust your institutions.

You can fear them, too.

Was our household deliberately targeted because of my wife’s last name? I can’t prove it, but I don’t think I’m paranoid. Scammers today don’t operate blindly. Mailing lists are purchased. Data brokers categorize households based on inferred demographics. Names, ZIP codes, and consumer data are routinely sorted and resold.

And eventually, a mass-produced message lands in the “right” mailbox. Someone who’s tired. Maybe they’re scared and feeling the pressure of what feels like a months-long occupation of their neighborhood. They panic, then cross their fingers, scan that QR code, and hope that a few hundred bucks will keep them on the right side of the law. After all, how many times in the last three months have Minnesotans been told that everything will be alright if they “just comply”?

Related: Minnesota DFL bill aims to withstand legal challenge over whether people can sue federal agents

Related: Minnesota DFL bill aims to withstand legal challenge over whether people can sue federal agentsBut because, according to the Pew report, nearly three-quarters of those scammed never report their loss to law enforcement, it’s hard to push back against scammers. The silence is a problem. Law enforcement doesn’t see scale, and communities underestimate prevalence. People assume “I’m the only one.”

We have to talk about these scams with our family and co-workers. The new arrivals navigating unfamiliar bureaucracies. The kid in high school translating things for mom and dad.

Everyone.

And the older they are, the more urgent those conversations, since “a vast majority of Americans (84%) say adults 65 and older are extremely or very likely to fall victim to online scams and attacks.”

So before you toss that scam letter, email or text, show it to someone. Wave it around. Talk about it.

“Have you seen this? This thing here? This is the scammiest of all scams. And let me tell you why.”

Dominic Saucedo lives in Minneapolis and teaches writing at Minneapolis College.