The immigration lawyer Liudmila Marcelo reported in an interview with journalist Tania Costa a wave of scams on social media where criminals clone real lawyers' accounts to charge immigrants up to 300 dollars for fake appointments.
Marcelo reported that he identified three to four fake accounts on TikTok that copied his videos and posted them as if they were their own. "In my case, I had already reported three accounts on TikTok that have copied my videos and put them up as if they were me," the lawyer explained.
The scammers monitored the comments on their original videos and directly contacted those who asked how to get in touch with her. When Marcelo tried to alert users by marking the accounts as fake, the criminals restricted the comments and blocked him.
"They blocked me," he clarified, describing how he mistakenly thought TikTok had acted.
The most recent incident occurred this Monday when a woman showed up at Marcelo's office thinking she had an appointment at eight in the morning, a time that the lawyer reserves exclusively for exercising.
"It is impossible that I gave that girl an appointment," he stated. The victim had paid 300 dollars for that non-existent appointment and had received completely incorrect immigration advice. The scammers promised her a "preliminary hearing in advance" to close her case, something that does not legally exist.
What alarmed Marcelo the most was that that woman had already had previous in-person dates with her and still almost fell for the deception. "Just see how people can be fooled, because that girl had already had a few in-person dates with me... They really know how to do things," he pointed out.
The payment method is also a red flag. The scammers requested the money through Cash App, to the personal account of an alleged assistant.
"Look, it's very unlikely that a lawyer would use Cash App and also ask you to send it to my assistant's email account or to my assistant's cell phone. That's impossible. From an accounting perspective, no firm can do that," Marcelo warned.
A couple of months ago, another client of yours nearly paid $400 via WhatsApp to a fake account that promised to apply for residency in court. She was saved when she noticed that the number did not match the usual WhatsApp contact for the office.
Marcelo also had to report an account that impersonated another lawyer known as "the lawyer Leal," which confirms that the phenomenon affects multiple immigration firms.
This pattern aligns with a documented surge in immigration fraud in the United States. According to an analysis by ProPublica, reports to the Federal Trade Commission nearly doubled, increasing from about 960 annually between 2021 and 2024 to nearly 2,000 in 2025, with total losses of at least $94.4 million over five years.
Marcelo offered specific recommendations to avoid falling into these traps. Among his advice, he suggested always checking Google or the lawyer's official website for the correct phone number and email before making any payments; calling the office directly to confirm any communication received via social media; and never paying without having signed a contract.
“Never, never, never. I mean, making a payment first without a contract. And second, without having spoken to a person first,” he emphasized.
"Never will any lawyer say, you need my help because of a message like that on TikTok. Look, it's me. No," Marcelo concluded, urging immigrants to be extremely cautious about any unsolicited contact on social media.
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