Fraudsters
are using caller ID to make you think the agency is calling
by Harriet Edleson, AARP, October 23, 2018
Yet another Social
Security scam is surfacing. This time the Social Security Administration (SSA)
is warning that fraudsters are imitating the agency’s phone number to lure
people into answering the phone.
If you receive any
phone call with the number 800-772-1213 on your caller-ID screen, beware. While
that number is the SSA’s national customer service line, the call is likely to
be a technological trick that thieves are using to try to obtain your Social
Security Number (SSN) or other personal information.
This type of fraud is
called a “spoofing” scam. Your best bet is to just hang up. The scheme “shows
that scammers will try anything to mislead and harm innocent people,” says Gale
Stallworth Stone, the acting Inspector General of Social Security.
The SSA has warned
people about several similar cons in recent months. Another one is an
impersonation scam in which the caller pretends to be “acting Inspector General
Gale Stone.”
If you do take the
spoofing call, avoid giving out your Social Security number or any checking or savings
account numbers to people you don’t know, even if they are convincing. Citizens
who have accepted the calls said the caller claims to be an SSA employee.
Reports of this scam have come from across the country.
Typically, the caller
says that the SSA does not have all of your personal information on file or
that agency needs additional information so it can increase your Social
Security benefits. The caller might even threaten that SSA will terminate your
benefits if you do not confirm your information.
According to Stone,
SSA employees do not contact Americans by telephone for customer-service
purposes and ask for SSNs or financial information. Further, SSA employees will
never threaten you for personal information or promise you a Social Security
benefit approval or increase in exchange for information.
If you receive a
suspicious call from someone alleging to be from the SSA, report that
information to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at 800-269-0271
(866-501-2101 for the deaf or hard of hearing) or online at oig.ssa.gov/report.
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