IG Warns Public About Fraudulent Phone Calls Threatening Arrest or Legal Action
Reading Time: 2 MinutesLast Updated: December 7, 2018
The Acting Inspector General of Social Security, Gale Stallworth Stone, is urging citizens to remain vigilant of telephone impersonation schemes that exploit the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) reputation and authority.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) continues to receive reports from across the country about fraudulent phone calls from people claiming to be from SSA. Recent reports have indicated that unknown callers are using increasingly threatening language in these calls. The callers state, due to improper or illegal activity with a citizen’s Social Security number (SSN) or account, a citizen will be arrested or face other legal action if they fail to call a provided phone number to address the issue. This is a scam; citizens should not engage with these calls or provide any personal information.
SSA employees do contact citizens, generally those who have ongoing business with SSA, by telephone for customer-service purposes. However, SSA employees will never threaten you for information; they will not state that you face potential arrest or other legal action if you fail to provide information. In those cases, the call is fraudulent, and you should just hang up.
“Unfortunately, scammers will try anything to mislead and harm innocent people, including scaring them into thinking that something is wrong with their Social Security account and they might be arrested,” Stone said. “I encourage everyone to remain watchful of these schemes and to alert family members and friends of their prevalence. We will continue to track these scams and warn citizens, so that they can stay several steps ahead of these thieves.”
The OIG recently warned that some of these impersonation calls have “spoofed” SSA’s national customer service phone number, displaying 1-800-772-1213 as the incoming number on caller ID.
The Acting Inspector General urges citizens to be extremely cautious, and to avoid providing information such as your SSN or bank account numbers to unknown persons over the phone or internet unless you are certain of who is receiving it. If you receive a suspicious call from someone alleging to be from SSA, you should report that information to the OIG at 1-800-269-0271 or online at https://oig.ssa.gov/report.
For more information, please visit https://oig.ssa.gov/newsroom/scam-awareness. For media inquiries, please contact Andrew Cannarsa, OIG’s Communications Director, at (410) 965-2671.
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Andrew Cannarsa, OIG Communications Director
Andrew Cannarsa, OIG Communications Director
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Fred O.
This number was left as the callback number for this social security scam:
646-969-3819
R V.
I received call from this number 817-207-5369 7/10/19, with threats of suspension and arrest & court. Read that I was to report this. I will ignore their call. Thank you.
Luis A.
Hello R. Voss. Thank you for letting us know about these calls. We do not usually make random calls. If you or anyone receives calls saying that they are from Social Security, do not give out any personal information. Suspicious calls should be reported to the Office of the Inspector General at 1-800-269-0271 or online. You can also report these scams to the Federal Trade Commission through a new site specific to Social Security scams here. We hope this helps.
Jack L.
The phone number I received the call from was 591-451-0112.
Ann C.
Thanks for letting us know, Jack. Suspicious calls should be reported to the Office of the Inspector General at 1-800-269-0271 or online. You can also report these scams to the Federal Trade Commission through a new site specific to Social Security scams, here. Thanks, again.
Lindsay F.
This happened and it
Came from 4156786968. We hung up
Ann C.
Hi, Lindsay. Thanks for letting us know. Suspicious calls should be reported to the Office of the Inspector General at 1-800-269-0271 or online. You can also report these scams to the Federal Trade Commission through a new site specific to Social Security scams, here. Thanks, again.
T.A. W.
There is no place on https://oig.ssa.gov/report to report suspicious calls from someone claiming to be from SSA.
Damian V.
On June 27, 2019 I received a message about my arrest due to my social security I provide false info. Weird, just yesterday I went to my local social security office and now I get this message I did something wrong. I have the number (972) 895-6512 from Ennis, TX I know is a scam
Ann C.
Thanks for letting us know, Damian. Suspicious calls should be reported to the Office of the Inspector General at 1-800-269-0271 or online. You can also report these scams to the Federal Trade Commission through a new site specific to Social Security scams, here. Thanks, again.
Robert R.
You tax me n Tax me n Tax me, Then you take All my SS Retirement pay.n.say I earn TOO MUCH ( FRAUD) w2’s. Threat calls from SS Admin . say I have my ID no# compromised .. Fraud .. N Your office not DO SHIT !!!
The employ that submit the fraud 2015 &2016 W 2 was indicted for F I C A TAX FRAUD ! Now you take from my pockets ! HILE HITLER … you Republican BASTARDS..
rick p.
2016238848 is the latest scammer. everybody call him, they will answer
Ann C.
Thanks for letting us know, Rick. Suspicious calls should be reported to the Office of the Inspector General at 1-800-269-0271 or online. You can also report these scams to the Federal Trade Commission through a new site specific to Social Security scams, here. Thanks, again.
Travis
I just got a call from the social security dept that said I have very serious allegations involving certain things I will not post because it doesnt matter if its not true im guessing. Anyways a great way to stop all this nonsense is of someone in the government decided to make a bunch of ss# linked to a tracker of some sort to notify immediate location of the one trying to use the number and you could distribute them randomly maybe to people that have called because they have been getting calls from that nature. Id imagine sometime in the future our social security number would be linked directly with our dna with some sort of instant detection of its really you. I have no clue how far we would be on that to stop one. So a cell phone in the far future obviously but would be equip with some standard dna protocol app when you need it to perform a test to make sure your you then boom. But with facebook listening into your every word while your phone is on to better there ways of serving you how far does that go? I mean we all have fingerprint scanners for are phones security right. Is there some sort of loop hole where they somehow now have a huge amount of peoples fingerprints before they commit a crime then legal have to have there fingers printed? If so how accurate and when would that make a real dif as evidence. We should just be all in or back out now if there truly are people that care that much about there privacy. I had amazon just send me something ive never even hinted i needed right after i physically fixed a womans antenna on her radio? 10 min after I fixed it I get a message from amazon saying we have the perfect item for you and it was some self installing antenna package . Coincidence that I happen to tape a womans antenna back on her radio after it broke off or was amazon now listening in on what I was doing ? Either way it can all benefit us or tear us apart but I just want more people to be aware that its possible I guess so when they call with a fake social security call, well so they will still have to call instead of just listening to our conversations and someone’s filling out paper work and asks ” hey can you tell me my sons ss# again so I can finish this hospital paper work honey”
John R.
I have received 3 calls today threatening legal action if I don’t call back. The same message came from 2 numbers: 956-329-2370, 361-355-4396. I have not and will not call either number.
Ann C.
Thanks for checking in with us, John. We do not usually make random calls. If anyone receives calls saying that they are from Social Security, do not give out any personal information. Suspicious calls should be reported to the Office of the Inspector General at 1-800-269-0271 or online. You can also report these scams to the Federal Trade Commission through a new site specific to Social Security scams, here. We hope this helps.