I received a call with the Call ID being U.S. GOVERNMENT with return phone number with a 201 area code. Since I'm a retired Gov't worker, I thought it might be a reply to a call I had made concerning my retirement, I answered the call. It was a recorded message supposedly from the Social Security Administration and they had noted suspicious activity involving my Social Security number. To rectify the situation I had to call the phone number she would be giving me. At this point I hung up because since when does the Social Security Administration have ANY thing to do do with financial activities concerning SSNs? I suspect the 201 area code (which is New Jersey) was meant to give credence to the call since the area code for DC is 202. A few hours later I received another call with the Call ID being U.S. GOVERNMENT but this time the return phone number had a 208 area code which is Idaho. I didn't bother to answer this second call.

__________________
Bill

If you haven’t already, sign up for secure online access to your SSA account, so you can check its status whenever you feel like it.

Then ignore any and all e-mails or phone calls purporting to have to do with Social Security.

They communicate by quite clearly identifiable mail. And nothing is ever urgent.

Of course it's a scam.

It's a SCAM! The Social Security Administration has advertised openly for years THEY DO NOT MAKE PHONE CALLS, they send letters if they have to communicate with taxpayers.

__________________
Gunsmithing since 1961

Scam........I don't believe that SS ever contacts people by phone.

And then the DEA called and told me I had to respond to charges that were pending against me......

Scammers can spoof any phone number so the number shown to be the caller's can be from any other number. I get a large number of calls from spoofed numbers on my cell phone.

Any phone call in which someone asks for financial information is a scam.

No exceptions, all of them.

If I don't recognize the name on the caller ID, I just don't answer.

That includes my cell phone.

__________________
Can open, worms everywhere.

What GaryS said.
DO NOT answer any call unless you”know” the caller.

What bugs me most about these scam and spoof calls is that the FCC and government created the scenario where these are possible but are doing little or nothing to fix it. Oh, I have written the FCC and my DC Congress critters but all they say i we are looking at it. This is just the result of yet another government program to help us, that turns to **** and costs we the people lots and lots of time and money. If everyone of you called your Congress critter and made a big deal over it, just perhaps something might get done.