There has been several posts recently regarding various scams about phone calls from scammers who falsely claim to be from Social Security. SSA OIG announced today that they have an on-line reporting form available to report phone scams. Anyone could always report a scam call to SSA OIG either on line or by phone. However the generic reporting form was not tailored to phone scammers and as such some necessary information wasn't captured. This form is specifically tailored to capture data necessary to investigate phone scammers. Save the link and fill it out please if you get a scam call. You will note that the form has many questions to answer assuming that the scam was successful. I'm sure that no reader here will fall victim to the scam. However a relative may. SSA OIG is very much interested in receiving all reports of scam calls, even if the only thing you did was to tell the caller to perform an unnatural act on themselves. Leave the parts asking about a successful scam blank. The most important thing you can do when you receive the call is to take note of the phone number that originated the call so you can report it on the form. Apologies for the long post, but I thought it was worth while.


Social Security OIG Launches Online Scam Reporting Form

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 19, 2019

The Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, Gail S. Ennis, and Commissioner of Social Security Andrew Saul announce the launch of a dedicated online form at https://oig.ssa.gov to receive reports from the public of Social Security-related scams. These scams—in which fraudulent callers mislead victims into making cash or gift card payments to avoid arrest for purported Social Security number problems—skyrocketed over the past year to become the #1 type of fraud reported to the Federal Trade Commission and the Social Security Administration.

To combat these scams, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) will use the new online form to capture data that will be analyzed for trends and commonalities. The OIG will use the data to identify investigative leads, which could help identify criminal entities or individuals participating in or facilitating the scams. Ultimately, these efforts are expected to disrupt the scammers, helping reduce this type of fraud as well as the number of victims.

“We are taking action to raise awareness and prevent scammers from harming Americans,” said Commissioner Saul. “I am deeply troubled that our country has not been able to stop these crooks from deceiving some of the most vulnerable members of our society.”

Inspector General Ennis and Commissioner Saul encourage the public to use the new online form to report Social Security phone scams including robocalls and live callers, as well as email, text, and in-person scams. The form allows people to create a unique Personal Identification Number (PIN), so if the OIG contacts a person about their report, they will know the call is legitimate.

“Awareness is our best hope to thwart the scammers,” said Inspector General Ennis. “Tell your friends and family about them and report them to us when you receive them, but most importantly, just hang up and ignore the calls.”

Social Security employees do occasionally contact people—generally those who have ongoing business with the agency—by telephone for business purposes. However, Social Security employees will never threaten a person with arrest or other legal action if they do not immediately pay a fine or debt. In those cases, the call is fraudulent and people should just hang up.

Social Security will not:
Tell you that your Social Security number has been suspended.
Contact you to demand an immediate payment.
Require a specific means of debt repayment, like a prepaid debit card, a retail gift card, or cash.
Demand that you pay a Social Security debt without the ability to appeal the amount you owe.
Promise a Social Security benefit approval, or increase, in exchange for information or money.

If there is a problem with a person’s Social Security number or record, in most cases Social Security will mail a letter. If a person needs to submit payments to Social Security, the agency will send a letter with instructions and payment options. People should never provide information or payment over the phone or online unless they are certain of who is receiving it.

The Social Security OIG will also continue to take reports of fraud, waste, and abuse in Social Security’s programs and operations. A separate online form for those reports remains available on the OIG website.

Great: Thank you!

Your link is to the reporting form. Do you have a link to the information you posted so I can send it along? (I don’t want to link to your post here and everything that will follow about how evil the gummint is.)

I tried to use a similar form a month or so ago to report a bunch of calls we were getting. Basically it seemed that if there was no payment to the scammer, the form went nowhere.

Let's hope this one works better.

If there was no payment to the scammer, you can still make a report. I hope everyone who gets such a call will make a report. Additionally, I hope state and local LEOs will encourage people to use the form to make a report. When I was a manager I used to hear from people who said they would get a scam call and contact local law enforcement. The local LEO would just say - call Social Security. That's usually as far as it went. I hope local LEOs will just take a minute to refer victims specifically to the web site and encourage the person to follow through with a report. It will take some time and a lot of data to build a case. But lets get these bastards.

I keep getting calls from them.

The other night, I got so pissed I called them back over 100 times. I said “fuck yourself” or some variation each time and hung up.

I could tell they were pisses, especially the one guy who was getting the majority of my calls. I felt better after this.

* I ignore (don’t answer, don’t decline) calls from numbers that aren’t in my address book.
* I do look at voicemails.
* The SS scams are laughably transparent. I won’t waste my time filing a form.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
* The SS scams are laughably transparent. I won’t waste my time filing a form.

Takes less than 5 minutes but I certainly wouldn't waste a moment of my time trying to change your mind. That's fine. I'm sure your time is valuable.

As a police officer friend of mine once said, we can't do anything about a crime unless it's reported to us. These scam calls are crimes.