When, according to AAA the average price for a gallon of gas in the United States was $4.82 in July of 2022 I told you in a Scam of the day about scammers posing as government agents offering phony fuel assistance. At that time the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warned the public about scammers calling, texting and emailing people posing as government representatives of the federal Fuel Relief Program offering assistance. All you needed to do, they told you, was provide some personal and financial information in order to be eligible for the program. Unfortunately, there was no such program then and there is no such program now as we all face high gas prices. Anyone providing their personal or financial information to the scammer will end up becoming a victim of identity theft.
Impostor 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 calling their intended victims on the telephone posing as some governmental agency such as the, FBI, IRS or the Social Security Administration. The scammer then, under a wide variety of pretenses, demands an immediate payment by gift cards, credit card or wired funds. Being asked to pay by gift cards is a definite indication that the call is a scam since no governmental agency requests or accepts payments by gift cards. Alternatively, the scammer demands the victim supply the phony governmental agent with personal information such as your Social Security number which will then be used for identity theft purposes.
TIPS
As I have often reminded you, 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. Even though your Caller ID may indicate that the call is coming from a government agency the call my be coming from a scammer.
Whenever you receive a phone call, text message or email, you can never be sure who is contacting you so you should never provide personal or financial information in response to such communications unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication is legitimate. In this particular case, there is no federal Fuel Relief Program so whoever contacts you claiming to represent the program is a scammer.
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