Growing wave of Social Security imposters overtakes IRS scam
By Emma Fletcher
April 12, 2019

Claiming to be a government authority is a tried and true way that scammers trick people into sending money. Among the most common government imposters have been scammers pretending to be the IRS – until now. In the past few months, the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network database has seen Social Security Administration (SSA) imposter reports skyrocket while reports of IRS imposters have declined sharply. In the shady world of government imposters, the SSA scam may be the new IRS scam.


SSA imposters tell you your Social Security number has been suspended because of suspicious activity, or because it’s been involved in a crime. They ask you to confirm your Social Security number, or they may say you need to withdraw money from the bank and to store it on gift cards or in other unusual ways for “safekeeping.” You may be told your accounts will be seized or frozen if you don’t act quickly.


These scammers often use robocalls to reach people, and the message can be hard to ignore. You may be told to “press 1” to speak to a government “support representative” for help reactivating your Social Security number. They also use caller ID spoofing to make it look like the Social Security Administration really is calling. With such trickery, these scammers are good at convincing people to give up their Social Security numbers and other personal information.


As the graphic shows (top), people reported the IRS scam (in blue) in huge numbers for many years, but the new SSA scam (in orange) is trending in the same direction – with a vengeance. People filed over 76,000 reports about Social Security imposters in the past 12 months, with reported losses of $19 million.1Compare that to the $17 million in reported losses to the IRS scam in its peak year.2 About 36,000 reports and $6.7 million in reported losses are from the past two months alone.


Just 3.4% of people who report the Social Security scam tell us they lost money.3 Most people we hear from are just worried because they believe a scammer has their Social Security number. But when people do lose money, they lose a lot: the median individual reported loss last year was $1,500, four times higher than the median individual loss for all frauds.4 All age groups are reporting this scam in high numbers, with older and younger adults filing loss reports at similar rates.5


People report sending money in unconventional ways. Most often, people say they gave the scammer the PIN numbers on the back of gift cards. Virtual currencies like Bitcoin come in a distant second to gift cards: people say they withdrew money and fed cash into Bitcoin ATMs. With both methods, the scammer gets quick cash while staying anonymous, and the money people thought they were keeping safe is simply gone.

Here are some tips to deal with these imposters:

• Do not trust caller ID. Scam calls may show up on caller ID as the Social Security Administration and look like the agency’s real number.


• Don’t give the caller your Social Security number or other personal information. If you already did, visit IdentityTheft.gov/SSA to find out what steps you can take to protect your credit and your identity.


• Check with the real Social Security Administration. The SSA will not contact you out of the blue. But you can call them directly at 1-800-772-1213 to find out if SSA is really trying to reach you and why.


• Talk about it. People recognize the IRS scam, but many are getting caught off guard by these new imposters. You can help by telling people that the SSA scam is a new version of the IRS scam.
  

Report government imposter scams to the FTC at FTC.gov/complaint.
To learn more, visit ftc.gov/imposters.

FN1 FTC was unable to collect reports directly from the public during the government shutdown. Reports collected during that period were provided by Sentinel data contributors.

FN2 From October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016, about 140,000 reports of IRS imposter scams were filed and collectively indicated $17 million of loss.

FN3 For comparison, 2.8% of IRS scam reports filed from January 2014 through March 2019 indicated a loss. In 2018, 25% of all fraud reports indicated a loss.

FN4 Median loss calculations are based on reports submitted in 2018 that indicated a monetary loss ($1 - $999,999). The median reported individual loss to all frauds was $371 in 2018.

FN5 Age comparison based on the number of Social Security imposter reports that indicated a monetary loss per million population by age. People who said they were 20 – 59 filed loss reports at a rate of 8.9 reports per million people in this age group, while people who said they were 60 and over filed 10.0 loss reports per million people in this age group. Population numbers obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Selected Age Groups by Sex for the United States, States, Counties and Puerto Rico Commonwealth and Municipios (June 2018). Not all reports include usable age information.

FROM: John Gear, 161 High St SE STE 208B, Salem OR 97301

To: Hon. Jennifer Williamson, Chair; Hon. Chris Gorsek, Vice-Chair; Hon. Sherrie Sprenger, Vice Chair; House Judiciary Committee Members

SUBJ: Please Support Better DA Accountability by Passing HB 3224
I write to ask that you pass House Bill 3224 and work with the Senate to send it to the Governor for approval. 
Although I am an attorney, I want to note that I don’t practice criminal defense. Instead I support this bill because of my long experience in performance and quality management and as an advocate for citizen empowerment and government accountability.

HB 3224 is simple - it makes it possible for the public who elects DAs to have the opportunity to have key office policies documented so that the public can know what the policies are, and if they are being followed.

Right now, DA offices are essentially black boxes that consume enormous state resources and provide no way for the public who pays the bills to examine the policies driving the outcomes. 

I urge every member of the committee to support HB 3224 and, if anyone want to read more on why HB 3224 is so important, read these two important books: 

“Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform” by Professor John Pfaff, and 

“When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment” by Professor Mark A. R. Kleiman. 

Professor Pfaff makes the point that prosecutors drive the entire criminal justice system, and their incentives are often counter to those that we want as a society. We need to require all the prosecutors to state their policies in key areas clearly so that we taxpayers can monitor our prosecutors. Kleiman’s book offers proven policy recommendations for having both less crime and less punishment. 

No state ever imprisoned its way to prosperity.

Oregon has seen an explosion costs in the Department of Corrections, and reducing those costs requires a better understanding of what is driving the decisions about who we prosecute and imprison and for how long.  

We must bring DAs into the same transparency that the Legislature requires of other law enforcement agencies and, indeed all other areas of government. It makes no sense that in this area, where government power is strongest, we have the least insight into the working principles for decisions.

Democracy requires both transparency and accountability, from the criminal justice system just as from other areas of government. Please pass HB 3224 and clearly establish the principle that DAs, the most important actors in the criminal justice system, have to set clear policies and allow the public to assess how well each office lives up to its principles. Oregon’s budget woes are only getting worse, and until we redirect our prosecutors, we cannot make progress in addressing that.

Cordially,
s/ John Gear

BHPH dealers are usually their own bank for holding the notes and collecting, and skirt the financial disclosure regulations in the process and in the re-titling of repos. (Assuming the title is ever placed in the buyer's name.) Often, their floor plan is private or through major auctions, and the finance arm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the dealership.  

This particular predatory practice is not limited to the sketchy downscale boulevard dealers, but is often found in the flashy franchised used car groups, doing high volume sales with extremely detailed buyer qualification handbooks. They've been with us for years, but the increase in the mass of low income workers who need mobility 
now make the problem more visible. 

Often, the condition of the vehicles are blamed for the repo, but it's more likely to be the burden of repayment that triggers. It's a better business model to sell the best cars the particular market will bear, setting the markup aside. These dealers are selling money, and the car is just a mechanism that recognizes a need and opens the door to a payment process. It's a lot more profitable to repo a decent vehicle if you're going to resell it.