Stealing Social Security numbers is the bread and butter of criminals who intend to steal people’s identities. There is no better way to extract this information than when the criminal pretends to be from the Social Security Administration. The criminals can position themselves to get your Social Security number, money, or other personal information that will be detrimental to the security of your identity.
Often, the criminal will call you claiming that they are from the Social Security Administration, but what they do next can vary. Sometimes, they will declare that your Social Security number has been associated with fraudulent activity and that the administration has suspended it. They will then tell you that you must verify your personal information, including the Social Security number that they are claiming is associated with fraud, and then you must pay to get a new Social Security number. This is the double whammy: they steal your personal information and you hand them money, too.
Another version of this scam occurs when the criminal calls you claiming that they are from the Social Security Administration, as in the other version of the crime, but here they have good news – your benefits have increased! All you need to do is verify some personal information like your name, date of birth, Social Security number, and address. With this information, the criminal will divert your benefits to another address, so that you will never receive them in the future.
If you ever receive a call from someone who claims to be from the Social Security Administration, here are a few things you should do to protect yourself from falling victim to identity theft. First things first, always be skeptical of someone who calls you claiming that they are from any governmental agency. They usually speak with conviction and sound very official but remember this can be faked very easily. Next, if the Social Security Administration calls, hang up. After you hang up, you will want to go on the SSA official website to find their official phone number to call them back. When you do call them back, make sure you verify with them that it was the SSA that had just called you. If it wasn’t, then you need to report to the SSA immediately that someone had just called you impersonating an SSA employee claiming that they were from the Social Security Administration. Although this may not help you directly, it may help to get the word out to others.
The bottom line is that there’s really no better time than the present to become a LibertyID member for identity theft restoration protection. LibertyID provides expert, full service, fully managed identity theft restoration to individuals, couples, extended families* and businesses. LibertyID has a 100% success rate in resolving all forms of identity fraud on behalf of our subscribers.
*Extended families – primary individual, their spouse/partner, both sets of parents (including those that have been deceased for up to a year), and all children under the age of 25