By: Molly Greenstone
Social Security impersonation calls were the no. 1 reported scam to the Senate Aging Committee’s fraud lines, according to Committee Chair Susan Collins. The calls resulted in scammers cheating Americans, mostly seniors, for $38 million in 2018 alone.
“Educating people, particularly older Americans who are more likely to be the targets, is key to defeating the scam,” Collins said. “If we can heighten public awareness we can prevent people from being victimized. But I don’t think we should underestimate the ruthlessness, creativity, and pressure tactics that are used by these criminals.”
During the hearing, a woman testified about her personal experience with a Social Security Scam. Machel Andersen said international criminals used the Social Security scam to steal over $150,000 from her and her husband.
“In hindsight, I realized that there were many signs I should have recognized indicating that I was being scammed, but the scammers had me so worked up they told me that I had to be convincing or I wound end up getting arrested,” Andersen said.
Andersen told her story from the beginning when the scammer convinced her that a Mexican drug cartel used her social security number to set up multiple bank accounts. A fake DEA agent sent Andersen arrest warrants until she cooperated and transferred $154,646 to Hong Kong.
“Maybe hearing my story will help protect some other family that would have a harder time recovering from something like this,” Andersen said. “Maybe my story will help these scammers stop once and for all.”
SSA Commissioner Andrew Saul and Inspector General Gail Ennis told members of the Committee that they have made combating cases like Machel Andersen’s a top priority.
“At first we were not doing enough to combat these scams. That was short-sighted,” Saul said. “The magnitude of this problem caught us off-guard. Americans trust our agency and our employees, and we cannot allow swindlers to erode that trust.”
Saul continued to say that educating Americans is the best way to tackle the problem. Anyone who goes to the Social Security Administration website will find a red banner with information on these scams.
The agency has also developed an online scam reporting form to help OIG get the information they need to investigate the scammers. “Since this form went live in mid-November OIG has already received over 100,000 written reports,” Saul said.
Saul emphasized that education is the key to solving this problem. The agency will be using email, television, radio, print, and social media to reach out to Social Security account holders.
“Last week we began rolling out emails to all 47 million Social Security account holders and we are working to add a scam awareness message to the outside of our envelopes which will reach millions of people,” Saul said.
Groshon, District Manager of the Saco Main Social Security Office, brought up that these scams have eroded citizen’s trust in federal employees.
“The increased call volumes prevent our agency from being able to conduct legitimate business from those seeking our core services,” said Groshon.
Senator Collins asked Groshon how people can distinguish legitimate calls from the Social Security office versus calls from scammers.
“We can ask certain questions about what office are you in, what phone number should I call, who else works in that office, or some other questions like that. Typically, if you ask enough questions they will start to stutter,” Groshon said.
When Collins questioned the SSA officials about the reaction of telecommunications companies, Inspector General Ennis said that major telecom carriers have been helpful with the SSA and other agencies.
Ennis said the Department of Justice has filed requests for two temporary restraining orders on telecommunications companies allegedly involved in the schemes.
“These companies, known as gateway carriers, facilitate the delivery of millions of fraudulent robocalls every day from foreign call centers to the United States telephone system and ultimately to the personal phones of victims throughout the United States,” Ennis said.
According to Ennis, these gateway carriers have allowed hundreds of millions of scam calls into the US telephone system and have earned money by profiting off of scam victims.
“I’m struck by the fact that these reports of scams with the SSA have displaced what was the most popular, most prevalent, scam in recent years which is IRS scamming,” Senator Josh Hawley said.
Senator Hawley continued to question Saul and Ennis on whether they have consulted with officials at the IRS to see what worked and did not work for them when combating scams in recent years.
“We’re the lucky ones, I do believe this is going to expand unless we can cut it off,” Saul answered.
Saul continued to credit other agencies for the efforts the SSA is taking to slow down the success rate of scammers.
“The scammers are very inventive and the minute something works for them they change, and we are playing catch up. What worked then may not work today,” Ennis said.
Advanced Reporting Times, Spring 2020 