As part of National Consumer Protection Week the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration, Gail Ennis, has announced the second annual ‘Slam the Scam’ day, which is set for March 4. Whilst there’s likely to be an absence of cake or fireworks to celebrate the day, the plan is to raise awareness about the thousands of fraudulent calls that are a constant menace to Social Security customers across the country. The Federal Trade Commission has calculated that over $174 million was lost to those scams in 2020 alone.
The agency urges all of us to be aware of any suspicious calls from ‘government officials’ calling about a problem. Suspicions should be raised if the caller wants you to give up your Social Security number, make payments by cash, or pay them using gift cards or wire transfers.
If you suspect a Social Security scammer you can go on-line and report it here https://oig.ssa.gov/
You can report any other scam calls with the FTC here https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/