Suspicious activity on my SS account. Right!

[Sunset]

I have done similar with these callers but now I don't because I think there's a possibility they could retaliate by super spamming my number, or worse. Wasn't some law passed recently to reduce these calls? I do seem to be getting fewer.

While an individual would think to do this, these are money making enterprises, whether 1 or 120 people phoning from a boiler room.
I doubt they are going to dedicate some dialer to dial 1 number, as that dialer then cannot dial 3,000 other phone numbers, which could yield 1->3 suckers each 12 hr period.

I notice we don't get any spam calls during the night.... are spammers working to Union rules

 

[14thMed]

Got a call this morning from El Paso on the SS scam . They left a number to call back.

 

[pacergal]

Unless you come up as a contact in my phone, I do not answer. Easy peasy to ignore.
Very, very rarely get a VM left.

 

[G8tr]

As much as I'd like to laugh along with everyone on this thread, it's very unfortunate that so many people (elderly who are very dependent on SS) still fall for this scam.

 

[harllee]

I know this thread is about SS scams but plenty of people actually do have their SS identity stolen (me included). I was receiving SS payments a few years ago and suddenly stopped getting them--found out that someone had called SS pretending to be me and had my SS payments deposited into a different account. I had a SS online account (which has now been frozen) and I was suppose to be notified by SS before any changes were made to where my payments were deposited but I was not notified. It took me months to get it straightened out and I finally had to get my Congressman involved.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Best thing to do is not answer the phone when you see a number you don't recognize.

Next best thing to do is hang up when you've identified it's a spam call.

But... sometimes the urge to waste the caller's time is too great a temptation to pass up so in those instances I answer every thing they say by echoing it back in the form of a question.

As in:

Caller: "We have evidence that your SS account has been hacked."

Me: "My SS account has been hacked?"

Caller: "Yes, your SS account has been hacked. I can help you recover it if you give me your full name and full SS#."

Me : "Recover it?"

Caller: "Yes, I can help you recover it if you give me your full name and full SS#."

Me: "My full name?"

etc. etc. Just keeping echoing back some of the key words they say in the form of a question. They get frustrated because they want to answer you but can't really explain what the purpose of their call is about. But they want to try to explain because you seem cooperative, are not being belligerent, and seem like a live prospect.

You can reset the whole process after a while by saying something like, "Wow, my SS account has been hacked, that's serious stuff. So what are you saying I should I do?"

Caller: "I can help you recover it if you give me your full name and full SS#."

Me : "Recover it?"

etc. etc. until I've wasted enough of their time or I tire of the routine.

 

[1242Vintage]

FIL (95 y.o.) got caught by a scammer. The scam was that his computer has a virus and “Microsoft” could help for a small fee of $500. Fortunately after he gave credit card information to the scammer he had enough suspicion to hang up and call us and we put a hold on the charge on his credit card and worked with his bank to get it fixed. All turned out OK.

Was a good reminder for wife and I to have frequent discussions about online and phone scams with both FIL and Mom. Need to keep both of them aware and secure.