A common phone call scam received from people says that the number for suspected activities is suspended. Then, it will urge you to speak with an official to help resolve the problem.
This scam is going on for over one year, if not more, and is pretending to be from a government official who says you have detected suspicious or fraudulent social security activity. The robocall then urges you to call back or talk to an agent to solve the problem.
As the FTC notes, numbers for the social security cannot be discontinued, so calls which say they are simply scams. The assailants try only to trick you into supplying your date of birth, bank account numbers, social security and other sensitive information.
“Thing is, Social Security numbers do not get suspended,” the FTC states in an advisory. “This is just a variation of a government imposter scam that’s after your SSN, bank account number, or other personal information. In this variation of the scheme, the caller pretends to be protecting you from a scam while he’s trying to lure you into one.”
It is important to remember these important facts when you receive a call via your Social Security number:
- The social security agency number is 1 – 800 – 772 – 1213. Never call a telephone or email number provided.
- You will never be threatened by the Administration of Social Security.
- SSN cannot be suspended.
- Never provide unknown persons who contact you with your social security number.
This scam uses various scripts for robocalls. A current script that these scams use is:
The reason you have received this phone call from our department is to inform you that we just suspended your social security number because we found some suspicious activity. So if you want to know about this case just press 1. Thank you.
A further variant is provided below that is more aggressive because if you do not call it back, you threaten to issue an arrest warrant.
Law enforcement agencies to suspend your Social Security number on an immediate basis, as we have received suspicious trails of information in your name. The moment you receive this message, I need you to get back to me on my department division toll-free number that is 1-888-952-5554. I repeat 1-888-952-5554. Verify the last four digits of your Social Security number when you call to better assist you with this issue. Now, if I don’t hear a call from you, we will have to issue an arrest warrant under your name and get you arrested. So, get back to me as soon as possible. Thank you.
I just got a scam call on my cell from the “Social Security Administration” office saying that my SSN has been suspended. LOL! I guess the IRS scams do not work anymore.
— Aaron de Montmorency (@AaronTalksSec) 3 April 2019
Aaron de Montmorency took an example and told BleepingComputer that although personally I never got any of these scam calls.
Be careful and be careful, as always, not to forgive or threaten to arrest you or to request information about a bank account or other sensitive information from social security administration. Calls requesting this information are fraudulent and should be hung up immediately.
