The Social Security Administration (SSA) has alerted the Santa Barbara County Department of Social Services (DSS) that fraudulent phone calls are being received by the public in our area. Here is the SSA's warning:
- The SSA Inspector General is warning the public of an ongoing caller-ID “spoofing” scheme misusing the SSA’s national customer service phone number.
- The SSA has received numerous reports of questionable phone calls displaying SSA’s 1-800 number on a caller-ID screen. This is a scam; citizens should not engage with those calls or provide any personal information.
- The caller identifies themselves as an SSA employee and asks for the person’s personal information.
- SSA employees do not contact citizens by telephone for customer-service purposes. In some situations, an SSA employee may request the citizen confirm personal information over the phone.
- However, SSA employees will never threaten you for information or promise a Social Security benefit approval or increase in exchange for information.
- SSA’s advice to the public is:
- The calls are fraudulent, and you should just hang up.
- Please be aware that phone numbers can be spoofed. If you answer a call from a number you know, but you do not recognize the caller, hang up.
- The SSA urges citizens to be extremely cautious, and to avoid providing information such as your SSN or bank account numbers to unknown persons over the phone or internet unless you are certain of who is receiving it.
- If you receive a suspicious call from someone alleging to be from SSA, you should report that information to the OIG at 1-800-269-0271 or online at https://oig.ssa.gov/report
