The Social Security Administration will never, ever call you to ask for your Social Security number or to threaten your benefits, the Social Security Administration emphasized in a warning to consumers issued Wednesday.
The Federal Trade Commission has been receiving complaints about scammers posing as Social Security employees calling consumers, the FTC said. The scammers are trying to get the consumer’s SS number and even cash.
“In one version of the scam, the caller says your Social Security number has been linked to a crime (often, he says it happened in Texas) involving drugs or sending money out of the country illegally,” the FTC said. “He then says your Social Security account is blocked and he will ask for a fee to reactivate it or to get a new number. Then he will ask you to confirm your Social Security number.
”In other variations, he says that somebody used your Social Security number to apply for credit cards and threatens that you could lose your benefits. Or he might warn you that your bank account is about to be seized, that you need to withdraw your money and that he’ll tell you how to keep it safe,” the FTC explained.
All of these situations are scams, the FTC warned.
Consumers cannot rely on caller ID to correctly show who is calling. “Your caller ID might show the SSA’s real phone number, 1-800-772-1213, but that’s not the real SSA calling. Computers make it easy to show any number on caller ID. You can’t trust what you see there,” the alert said.
The FTC warned consumers to never give out a Social Security number to a caller and not to even confirm the last four digits. Don’t give a bank account number or credit card number – ever – to anybody who contacts you asking for it, the commission added.
“Remember that anyone who tells you to wire money, pay with a gift card, or send cash is a scammer. Always. No matter who they say they are,” the alert emphasized. “If you suspect a scam, hang up and call the Social Security Administration and the FTC.”