Scammers and identity thieves are continuing to call people posing as a government employee who informs you that there is a problem with your Social Security number or benefits.  Often they even threaten arrest or other legal action.  In many instances they demand payments by way of gift cards or cryptocurrencies to resolve the problem.

Scammers call on the phone under a variety of pretexts and ask for the Social Security numbers of the people they call.  In the hands of an identity thief, it is very simple matter for a criminal to take a person’s Social Security number and use it to make the person a victim of identity theft.  Some of the excuses given by the scammers calling are that criminal activity has been linked to the particular number and they need to confirm that you are not a criminal or that there has been a computer problem at the Social Security Administration and they need to confirm your Social Security number.  Making the problem worse is that through a technique called “spoofing” scammers are able to manipulate your Caller ID so that the call you receive appears to come from the Social Security Administration.

TIPS

An easy way to avoid becoming a victim of this scam is to remember that the Social Security Administration will never initiate any contact with you by telephone call, email or text message.  Any communication you receive in this manner that is not in response to your own telephone call or email is a scam.  On a larger scale, it is important to remember that you can never be sure whenever you get an email, text message or phone call as to who is really contacting you so you should never provide personal information to anyone in response to an email, text message or phone call unless you have independently confirmed that the communication was legitimate and that information from you is absolutely required.

It is important to remember that the real Social Security Administration will never threaten you with suspension of your Social Security benefits or demand immediate payment by gift cards, wire transfers or cryptocurrency.

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