Once again, scammers impersonating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or police officers are targeting local Latino residents.

“I never imagined this would happen to my daughter, I knew there was bad people out there, but they scare you so much, you don’t have any other choice,” said J., a Riverhead resident and the mother of the victim.

J.’s daughter F. was defrauded of $850 after a woman— claiming to be from the “University of Riverside” in California —called her Tuesday night saying that she was being sued because she owed money on a loan and she now had a “record.”

The woman, who identified herself as Yessenia Villa, told F. they had notified immigration authorities.

“I had received a phone call a couple months before from someone telling me I was the recipient of some kind of grant or loan from a school in California, I was working and didn’t pay any attention to it at the time,” said F.

Villa called F. on Tuesday and said the loan was now due and in order to “clean” her record, it was important F. wired money as soon as possible and everything would immediately clear up.

Then, a man posing as an ICE agent who went by the name of Christian Smith, called her to corroborate Villa’s story.

F., who just turned 21 and who is currently in an immigration process to adjust her status — and has never visited California, questioned the person calling but then decided to go ahead and pay whatever they were asking because they had her personal information and were threatening her with sending an ICE agent to her home if she didn’t comply immediately.

F. said that the phone calls were initiated from what she thought was a 911 number with an asterisk in front, which in her mind made the calls legitimate.

The woman then gave specific instructions to F. and insisted on remaining on the phone with her while she drove to a local store to send the money.

“It is very important you say you are making a personal wire, personal, remember that part, to Jorge Bendezu Gomez and you say you want to send it to Lima, Peru,” the woman told F., who recorded part of the conversation. “If you say anything different they will charge you more money and we don’t want that.”

“My daughter sent all the money she had saved from weeks of work,” J. said crying. “We were terrified.”

After F. made the initial wire, Villa then told her that in order for her to send her the paperwork “clearing up her record” F. had to wire another $400 for “FedEx fees.” F. told Villa that she didn’t have any more money, but Villa said that the ICE officer was on his way to her home and the only way to stop him was by sending the money.

F. borrowed the money and once again, with Villa on the phone, went that same night to make a wire by Western Union to the same man in Peru. Since it was late, F. went to a different store.

Once there, the woman behind the counter questioned the transaction.

“She wanted to know why we were sending money to Peru if we are from Guatemala,” J. said. “We couldn’t say anything because Yessenia was listening to our conversation.”

When the woman saw how J. and F. were acting she suspected something wasn’t right, J. said and called J. aside who quickly explained the situation.

“She told us it was a scam and she confronted Yessenia who was on the phone,” J. said. “Yessenia started to insult her and mistreat her very badly by phone but she quickly hung up when we told her the police was on its way and never called again.”

“An angel appeared in our path, otherwise we would have sent that money,” J. said.

F. reported the incident to Riverhead Town Police yesterday.

“In a situation like this, make sure you can talk to someone you trust before you do anything,” Riverhead Town Police Chief David Hegermiller said. “Never give out any personal information or money to someone who you don’t know over the phone.”

Hegermiller also said that 911 doesn’t call people and to report that immediately.

“I feel relieved this is over, but sad because we were duped so badly,” J. said.

However, this scam is not an isolated event. Recently there have a series of victims in the East End’s Latino population who have fallen prey to scams that have followed a similar pattern.

During the past two months at least five people — from Riverhead to Aquebogue, Calverton and Greenport — were scammed by someone claiming to be a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services officer. (See related story.)

Two of those victims had to send money to Lima, Peru.

Last year, in a situation almost identical to F.’s case, another woman was also scammed of $800 and had to send the money to Peru as well. (See related story.)

A Long Island FBI agent urged victims to report the scams to their office because she said “this can be a part of a large operation and by bundling the complaints we can build a case.”

But, even though they are the victims of a crime, because of fear and lack of information, sometimes immigrants choose not to report a particular incident to the police.

“We understand that some people might be scared, we understand there might be language barriers, but we are here to help all members of our community and we have the resources to do it like interpreters and translators,” Hegermiller said.

“It’s very important people come forward and report these crimes to us. It’s the only way we can know.”