Please be advised that the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) has noted a skyrocketing of fraudulent calls purporting to come from the SSA. These imposter scam phone calls have been reported to include the following scare tactics:
- calls alerting you that your social security number has been suspended due to suspicious activity or due to involvement a crime.
- robocalls regarding the “reactivation” of your social security number. These calls suggest that you should “press 1” to speak to a government support representative for help reactivating your social security number.
Further, scammers may advise you to:
- withdraw funds for safekeeping or store money on gift cards in the event your assets are frozen. Scammers will then seek to steal the value of gift cards purchased by requesting the codes on the back of the gift cards.
- withdraw cash and convert it into digital currency by depositing it in a Bitcoin ATM (where it’s accessible to them/thieves).
Many SSA scam calls appear to be coming from a spoofed SSA phone number. The number displaying in caller ids is the SSA’s fraud hotline number (1.800.269.0271). The SSA has advised that legitimate requests to confirm information will not come from the fraud hotline number. They also advise that they will never seek to confirm your SSN, ask you to send money or threaten you. If in doubt of the legitimacy of a call, you can contact the SSA’s main number: 1.800.772.1213 to confirm.
It is recommended that you do not provide your social security number or other sensitive information to unverified callers. If you have already done so, visit IdentityTheft.gov/SSA for recommendations. Imposter scams can be reported to the FTC at FTC.gov/complaint.