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Police are urging citizens to educate seniors about Social Security scams

Social Security imposter scams have reached the Concho Valley. The SAPD is urging citizens to educate senior citizens on these types of calls.
Credit: FOX West Texas

SAN ANGELO, Texas — The national wave of Social Security imposter scams has reached the Concho Valley, according to a press release from the San Angelo Police Department.

Claiming to be a government authority, scammers trick people, often senior citizens, into sending money. Among the most common government imposters have been scammers pretending to be agents from the Internal Revenue Service, until now.

In the past few months, the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network database has seen Social Security Administration imposter reports skyrocket while reports of IRS imposters have declined sharply. In other words, authorities said, the SSA scam is the new IRS scam.

The Inspector General of Social Security, Gail S. Ennis, is warning citizens about a caller-ID “spoofing” scheme misusing the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General’s Fraud Hotline phone number. The OIG has received recent reports of phone calls displaying the fraud hotline's number on caller-ID screens. This is a scam. OIG employees do not place outgoing calls from the fraud hotline 800 number. Citizens should not engage with these calls, provide personal information or send money to the caller via pre-paid gift or Visa cards.

How the scam works:

Scammers will often use robocalls and the message is hard to ignore. SSA imposters tell you your Social Security number has been “suspended” because of suspicious activity, or because it’s been involved in a crime. You may be told to “press 1” to speak to a government “support representative” for help reactivating your Social Security number.

With such deception, authorities said, these scammers are good at convincing people to give up their Social Security numbers and other personal information. They ask to confirm Social Security numbers, or they may tell the citizen they need to withdraw money from the bank and to store it on gift cards, or in other unusual ways for “safekeeping.” Citizens may be told their accounts will be seized or frozen if they don’t act quickly.

The SSA will not contact anyone "out of the blue" and will never call to threaten benefits or tell anyone to wire money, send cash or put money on gift cards. Anyone who does this is a scammer.  Anyone can call the SSA directly at 800-772-1213 to find out if SSA is really trying to reach them and why.

Anyone who receives a suspicious call from someone alleging to be from SSA or OIG should report that information to the OIG online at oig.ssa.gov/report or by calling 800-269-0271 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (EST) Monday through Friday.

Citizens can also report these scams to the Federal Trade Commission through a new site specific to Social Security scams, identitytheft.gov/ssa

 

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