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Q&A
DCWP's process for handling specific immigration services fraud cases
0:33:38
·
3 min
Council Member Alexa Avilés presents a specific case of immigration services fraud involving WhatsApp and asks how DCWP would handle it. DCWP representatives explain their process for reviewing and potentially referring such cases.
- All immigration service provider complaints are reviewed by a lawyer at DCWP
- The agency tries to identify connections to brick-and-mortar locations or individual identities
- If the case goes beyond DCWP's reach, they may refer it to district attorney's offices
- DCWP emphasizes the importance of receiving complaints through their portal, even if they come from advocates or family members rather than victims directly
- The agency acknowledges limitations in recovering money for victims in many fraud cases
Alexa Avilés
0:33:38
So for, so in this instance again, guess just last week I had a case in my office where someone sent $1,500 to a person on WhatsApp because it was recommended by a neighbor that this was a speedy way to get their immigration services bumped up.
0:34:02
He sent his entire life savings to an unknown entity.
0:34:07
What happens, can you walk me through how DCWP handles this case?
Michael Tiger
0:34:16
So thank you for that question.
0:34:19
And again I want to reiterate something that the commissioner said that if for example the consumer doesn't want to come forward, a family member, an advocate can come forward on their behalf.
0:34:30
I think the important part is having some sort of contact information that we can continue a conversation to understand the facts.
0:34:37
So if we got that type of complaint, we would review it.
0:34:41
As the commissioner said, all immigration service provider complaints that come in through our consumer services unit now go directly to a lawyer for review.
0:34:50
And that lawyer will look at it, see if there's some, it's connected to a brick and mortar location or if there's any contact info with a person that we can identify.
0:34:59
And we can do research to see what we know about that individual, whether there are any aliases.
0:35:05
But ultimately, if we think it goes beyond what we can reach, whether we think it's criminal, maybe the person who is holding the WhatsApp account is not even in this country.
Alexa Avilés
0:35:18
Yeah, yeah.
Michael Tiger
0:35:18
And that's why, as I said, we're redoubling our efforts to talk to district attorney's offices who might be better resourced and might have jurisdictional authority that might be better used to approach some of those cases.
0:35:31
But in the first instance, it will go to a lawyer, we'll look at it, and we'll see what we can do based on the laws that we have.
0:35:36
And we'll make a determination about whether this is something that we can pursue or whether there are different actors within the regulatory space in New York City who might be better positioned to take the lead on it.
Alexa Avilés
0:35:48
So how much of those kinds of cases are referred out for next step to handle?
Michael Tiger
0:35:56
I don't think I have those numbers right here for you right now.
0:36:01
And honestly, what we want to do and one of the reasons we're happy to be here today is just to, for you, for the council members and individual members to hear from us that to talk to people in your community, talk to your organization so they can go and make complaints to us.
0:36:16
Because we're not getting hundreds and hundreds and hundreds complaints.
0:36:19
Even though we know the harm is out there.
0:36:22
And it's important that we hear from you and we hear from organizations and we hear from stakeholders and make complaints through our portal, our consumer complaint portal which is used for all the consumer protection complaints.
0:36:36
You can make a complaint there.
0:36:37
Again, it doesn't have to be the individual.
0:36:39
It can be a family member, it can be an advocate, but it's very important that we all work together to get the facts on the ground so we can make those assessments.