Social Security Impostors Take Scams to the Next Level

[AARPLynne]

Criminals have been phoning people, posing as real Social Security officials and flaunting fake badge numbers to persuade victims to give up money or sensitive information, a government official warns. (Read the full article...) Has this happened to you? What would you do?

[fffred]

I was pretty excited tonight to receive the Social Security phone call at home. I knew right away it was not legitimate, and then I got excited and put it on speaker phone so my wife could hear. Afterwards I told her that it was a scam and how and why I knew (I suppose I could be wrong but I had my analysis of the call).

It was funny that the recorded male speaker (this was a recording that I would have had to reply to) had a very serious voice, the voice of someone in great authority. Like listening to a policeman or someone. In fact, the guy who calls me regularly from the police benevolent fund has the same tone and tenor of voice; there must be a school.

I wish I had a transcript of the call. There were all sorts of dire threats of what would happen if I didn't follow their instructions. Threats of felony and breaking laws. It was so goofy but I could see how some vulnerable person could fall for this.

I go through phases... either I don't answer any phone calls or I answer them all. I got one the other day, a live person, wanting to sell me some health insurance. I asked him "oh, do you want to speak to our Sales Department?". We went back and forth on that one and he got confused "Is this a business I'm calling?", "Yes, would you like to speak to our Sales Department?". I've gotten a number of long, large, stressful projects completed recently and I guess now I'm blowing off steam.