2

I received a phone call representing themselves as an SSI officer telling me that my disability payments will be canceled. They said I did fraud in Texas. I asked them what name they have; they could not tell me. I asked if they knew my Social Security number; they could not tell me. The last time I was in Texas was about 10 years ago.

These phone calls are driving me crazy! They also say that they will suspend my social security. I have done nothing wrong. How can I make the calls stop? What should I do when I get a call like this?

Improve this question
3
  • 2
    What’s your question?
    – James McLeod
    Feb 1, 2020 at 18:58
  • 3
    It's a scam. Just ignore it. I have been receiving similar calls for at least a year at a rate of about 2 a month.
    – not-nick
    Feb 1, 2020 at 19:01
  • Tell them you are already in jail so they should stop calling already.
    – user12515
    Feb 3, 2020 at 2:06

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
10

This is a scam.

Here is information from an official USA government website. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2018/12/what-social-security-scam-sounds

SSA will never call to threaten your benefits or tell you to wire money, send cash, or put money on gift cards. Anyone who tells you to do those things is a scammer. Every time.

EDIT: There is not much anyone can do to stop the calls. The phone number on your caller ID is not really the number they are calling from. You should just hang up immediately every time. Do not engage them in conversation. And if it is a robocall, do not press a number to get to a live person, etc. That moves you up from randomly called number to promising mark.

Improve this answer
7

Social Security - same as the IRS - would never call you with such a topic.
Those are always scams, trying to talk you into sending them money, by making the issue urgent and threathening. Ignore it.

Improve this answer
5

What can I do when I get a call I think is a scam?

Hang up. (Or don't answer in the first place.)

I probably get over 20 scam calls per week. Some I answer because based on the caller ID it could be work related in my city, but if before I say anything I hear a recording in Chinese, or a recording that sounds like a real person saying "Hello?", I know to just immediately hang up. Another tell tale sign is if the first 5-6 numbers are the same as yours- then it's almost always a scam and you shouldn't bother answering. Sometimes they screw up and set their caller ID to your own number!

These phone calls are driving me crazy! ... How can I make the calls stop?

I don't know how you can make it stop, but the best advice I can give you is:

Something is only offensive if you take offense.
Something is only annoying if you let it annoy you.

Something that helps me, is anytime my phone rings from a non-contact number, I assume it is a scam or spam, and if it's not then I'm pleasantly surprised. One nice side effect of doing this is that when it's a legitimate call, I think the caller actually can notice that I'm genuinely excited to speak with them. It's all about changing your expectations.

At least we don't have door-to-door sales-drones ringing our doorbells, yet.

Improve this answer
3
  • 5
    A sales door drone I could deal with. Baseball bat.
    – DJClayworth
    Feb 2, 2020 at 4:14
  • 2
    I've had some success by pressing one to speak to a human and then shouting "LA LA LA LA LA" in the phone as loudly as possible. It does seem to get me off the list fairly fast.
    – ceejayoz
    Feb 3, 2020 at 1:52
  • 2
    "Something that helps me, is anytime my phone rings from a non-contact number, I assume it is a scam or spam, and if it's not then I'm pleasantly surprised. " I also find this strategy works well.
    – JMac
    Feb 3, 2020 at 13:50

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .