Posted on 03/31/2019 4:25:21 AM PDT by BenLurkin
But a new wrinkle in this venerable scam was recently reported. In this one, recipients of a call are told that their Social Security number has been suspended due not to their own actions but to more general "suspicious activity."
Instead of being given another number to call, the victims are told to simply press 1, and they'll be connected with a Social Security agent. Instead, they are connected to a fraudulent agent, who may ask them to verify their Social Security number. Once they verify it, the fraudster has it. Fines and bank account numbers are part of this one, too.
Unfortunately, Social Security fraud is all too frequently perpetrated against senior citizens. Most senior citizens rely on Social Security for at least part of their income, and many rely on it for a sizable percentage of it. They may be very frightened of a possible suspension of the number and hence the benefit.
Senior citizens also often don't realize how easy it is to imitate even an agency of the U.S. government. In the past, scam artists have set up phone numbers with 202 area codes (the one used in Washington, D.C.) and email accounts with ssa.gov as part of the address -- which is part of the actual online address of the SSA. They have set up fake SSA websites that look very convincing.
This time of year, there may be a third wrinkle. Tax returns, refunds, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), another federal agency, are in the minds, computers, and mailboxes of many people. Senior citizens and the rest of the population might be more likely to believe that someone from the U.S. government is actually contacting them about suspicious activity during this period than any other.
(Excerpt) Read more at fool.com ...
“Hello this is Lenny”
https://www.soundboard.com/sb/itslenny
I like to use this website to play back responses to the telemarketers. So far my record of keeping them talking to “Lenny” is up to 14 minutes before they give up. LOL!
Government agency’s contact you by mail, never by phone; if an “agent” does try to scam by asking for information you tell them to tell >you< what your information they see on their computer screen. But in any case, just hang up.
Thanks for the reminder. I’m retiring soon so this is good to know. TBH, I would have laughed if anyone told me my SSN was being “suspended”. Don’t you need to be dead first?
I believe in the death penalty for cases of murder, rape, incest and telemarketing.
Oh, and treason. This should be used on some of the Deep State conspirators.
Yes, I’m serious.
I have a call blocker on it. The ring tone tells me its robo call. When the bad call comes, it is a tom-tom western movie theme ring. You know the one, the music they play in the John Wayne movies when the Apache’s are over looking the trooper column.
I’ve had my cell number since they were available but I’m about to change numbers next week. I get an average 10-15 robo calls daily.
I got that call on my cell phone last week, and on my landline phone a couple weeks ago. Both numbers that the calls came from are now blocked on both of my phones. Yea, I know, the scammers frequently change the caller ID of the number from which they are calling (spoofing the caller ID using VOIP).
How does anyone fall for these scams?
Maybe those with dementia or some state of Alzheimer’s but not using common sense for anyone else is plain stupidity.
I’d enjoy getting one of these calls ‘cause I love playing with fraudsters.
My legit contacts with Social Security have always been through the mail.
I never pick up the phone. My daughters know to tell me to pick up. Everyone else leave a message maybe i will call.
“In a just world, robocall scammers should be put to death.”
Add crimes involving a broad range of electronic crime such as computer hacking, credit-bank card theft, ID theft and basic fraud etc. I’ll be pleased to donate for rounds or ropes.
Got this call last week - the caller sounded like he was from India
I never answer my phone if the caller’s name doesn’t come up or if I don’t recognize the number. Even if its a local number. If it’s someone I don’t know, I don’t want to talk to them anyway.
I tried to open an account with the SS web page, but the security questions included no answers that were correct.
The SS person I talked to on the phone said security questions are generated from credit reports. When I pointed out that someone else must be using my number, his only remedy was to freeze my account, which I did.
The SS couldn’t care less about misuse of our SS numbers.
Government drones...there are 60,000 of them in the Soc Sec Admin...I will say once you start receiving deposits they seem to show up on schedule pretty consistently...that part is all automated.
I’d like to meet the guy using my SS number
and thank him for making all those donations.
Do your yearly statements show more than what you are putting in?
I’m retired. So nothing should be going in, right?
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