Imposter scams have long been among the most lucrative for scammers. While there are many variations of this scam, the most common variations have involved scammers emailing their victims posing as a popular company with which we all do business or calling their intended victims on the telephone posing as some governmental agency such as the IRS or the Social Security Administration. The scammer then, under a wide variety of pretenses, demands an immediate payment by cryptocurrencies, gift cards, credit card or wired funds. Being asked to pay by gift cards or cryptocurrencies is a definite indication that the call is a scam since no company or governmental agency requests or accepts payments by gift cards or cryptocurrencies.
A sophisticated new version of the imposter scam is presently circulating that begins with a fake snail-mail letter that appears to come from the Supreme Court and carries the forged signatures of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The stationary appears legitimate and carries the seal of the Supreme Court, but it is a simple matter to counterfeit the stationary and seal. The letter, which is personally addressed to each targeted victim informs the targeted scam victim that he or she is a suspect in a criminal investigation and also claims that their Social Security number has been compromised. The letter goes on to say that the targeted victim’s assets will be frozen and urges the targeted victim to cooperate with the U.S. Treasury Department. The letter closes with a threat of failure to cooperate in the safeguarding of assets will result in their loss as well as having their Social Security number suspended.
The letter is followed up with a text message with a link to a fake Social Security site or a phone call purportedly from a representative of the Social Security Administration. In both instances the scammers then demand personal information such as the targeted victim’s Social Security number or bank account information which will lead to identity theft or in some instances they also request payment of money allegedly to safeguard the targeted victim’s funds.
TIPS
As I have often reminded you, whenever you are contacted by letter, phone call, email or a text message you can never be sure who is actually contacting you. B.S. Be skeptical. Through the simple technique of “spoofing” it is very easy for a scammer to manipulate your Caller ID to make a call coming to you appear legitimate when it is not. Therefore you can never truly trust your Caller ID. Trust me, you can’t trust anyone. Email addresses can also be made to appear legitimate as can text messages when they are actually coming from a scammer and it is a simple matter to counterfeit a snail mail letter.
Never click on a link, download an attachment, provide personal information or make a payment in response to an email, text message or phone call unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication is legitimate.
As for this particular scam, it is important to remember that the Supreme Court never sends letters to citizens and no federal agency will ever ask you to make a payment to secure your funds.
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