Frauds & Scams

IG Warns Public About Fraudulent Phone Calls Threatening Arrest or Legal Action

December 7, 2018 • By

Reading Time: 2 Minutes

Last 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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About the Author

Andrew Cannarsa, OIG Communications Director

Andrew Cannarsa, OIG Communications Director

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Comments

  1. James B.

    Just had a call from what was a spoofer claiming to be the SSA. There phone number is 1+210-209-8842

  2. STEPHEN H.

    WE HAVE BEEN RECEIVING CALLS FROM SSA ABOUT SOME LEGAL TROUBLES WITH OUR SSI, THEY GIVE A BADGE NUMBER OF THE INSPECTOR, THAN TELL YOU TO CALL THIS NUMBER ASAP. WE KNOW IT IS A SCAM, BUT WHY CAN’T ANYTHING BE DONE TO STOP THIS
    FROM CALLING???*** ONE CALL CAME FROM SPOKANE, WA., 5092288640, ON 1-2-2019. NEXT ONE
    FROM FARMINGTON, MI., 2485229946 ON 1-3-2019.
    THESE CALLS HAVE BEEN COMING FOR WEEK OR MORE, ALWAYS DIFFERENT NUMBERS???***
    1-3-2019.

  3. Bob

    If the government would FORCE the phone companies to fix their callerid system, all of these scams would go away. Instead, our government continues to allow itself to be convinced that there is no technology that could fix this. Sure there is. There are numerous technologies, but especially block chain technologies that could fix this.

    So, what do you say, SSA? Isn’t it time to put an end, nationwide, to all the scams that are empowered by the broken caller id system? I think it is.

  4. Mary L.

    This keeps happening and now no food stamps, and not even my disability come FL. State has decided to change my one payment through FL. Dept of children and families. Which is crorupt I. Kississme,FL. At Gatlin street. Also to many question able NGOs are given to much information by staffers only place it could be coming from. Investigate please. Mary L. Evans

  5. Denise W.

    I get 4 or 5 calls aday they come from Washington State , Texas State. Stating I’m being sued by Social Security office and I’m not longer receiving my Social Security checks as of the 1st of January 2019. I haven’t received my check . So I guess it is not a scammer.

  6. W. E.

    If the scammers have spoofed the SS number, how do I know I am actually speaking to an actual SS agent when is call the SS number (800-772-1213)? I need to call them with an inquiry. Is it that just the number comes up on my caller ID but if I call it I am actually reaching SS? Please let me know. Thank you. Happy Holidays!

  7. DAVE

    to whom it may concern: My Spouse and I have been trying for a couple of days now to log in our accounts with no success . I get as far as the Security Code and never recieve it via email , my Spouse is warned that she has tried to log in more than three times when we’ve tried it once . In fact the last time she was able to log in was a month ago. Something is not going right with your systems or they’ve been hacked .

  8. STEVE U.

    I got the call today…I just hung up

  9. Jeff O.

    My wife and I get those calls where they will arrest us within the hour if we don’t pay the fine. My wife tells them to stop at the house with a man sitting on the stoop. Take him in lieu of money.

  10. Duane R.

    I have just received a phone call from SSA my account might be compromised and to contact them. The number on my caller ID was 800 325-0778.

Comments are closed.