The Old Gray Mare

A Few Scam Alerts To Add To a Growing List of Swindles



Posted: Saturday, December 03, 2011

by The Old Gray Mare
www.DressYourHorse.com

There have been so many concocted scams involving Medicare and Social Security that it is astounding. If the crooks wrapped their heads around solving problems, we’d be way ahead of the game.

Here are three current scams, exposed by AARP, that allegedly head the list for the newest Social Security frauds.

Social Security Administration scheme: Update to records

Identity theft ranks right up there on this one. The crooks act as SSA employees. Polite and well spoken, the caller tells the individual that they are auditing files to make sure they are accurate. This scheme can also come by email or snail mail in addition to the phone call. The thief asks to doublecheck personal information such as Social Security number and birthday, also mother’s maiden name, and bank account numbers. Alert everyone – prime information for identify theft!

Reply that you will deal directly with the Social Security Administration and ask them to spell their name and give you their correct number. Then visit your local SSA office or call yourself to check out this contact. SSA is 1-800-772-1213.

SSA scheme: Tax refund

The crook will request you to refile an income tax return to qualify for the special tax refund of $3,000. This amount is being refunded to valid tax returns in compensation for two years of new cost of living increases. Alert everyone – they’ll concoct a few ways of getting the tax return expedited at a minimal cost of $30.

The fact is that they’ll charge $30 to file the tax forms but there’s no refund. It’ll be too late to get your personal refund back.

SSA scheme: Bigger check

Contact is made with you by email, phone or US mail offering benefits after a small refilling fee. Straight forward? Alert everyone – the SSA does not charge filing fees.

If ever you feel that you are not receiving the full amount of benefits, file an appeal, at no cost or seek the help of an attorney specializing in SS benefits. Find this person yourself. Remember that SSA regulates any charges by these attorneys. Others face criminal charges if they overcharge.

Travel scheme: Grandparent fraud

This scam is popular right now and many people have been duped. The individual receives an emergency phone call (possibly an email) frantically sent by a “grandchild” – really someone posing as a grandchild. It might be worded like this, “Help Grammy! I’m stuck in a hotel in London [or most often in a hospital in Mexico or a jail in Italy], my wallet and passport have been stolen, and I can’t leave until I pay. Could you wire me some money?” The person will add, “Please don’t tell the folks, cause they’ll kill me if they find out.” If the scammer has personal information already, the contact made to you will be detailed. The caller might even simply say, “Hi, it’s your grandson.” It’s astounding that people believe such a call but based on the panic, especially in a phone call, they’ll want to help.

If this should happen to you, just don’t blatantly fall for it. Make some calls to the relatives to find out where the grandkids really are.

The following scams involve your cell phone. You probably already know what “phishing” is? Phishing involves emails that trick you into furnishing financial or personal information or even passwords. Now you can add “smishing” and “vishing.” Smishing is the technology used by texting and comes in a text message. Vishing is a call made with a recorded voice.

Scam artists are stepping up cellular phone fraud at an alarming rate. Here they have been finding increasing successes.

Cell phone scams

Bogus Bank text

You might have received a text message “from your bank.” When you respond to the number in the text message, in actuality you’ll respond to the scam number. Then you can expect to divulge account, PIN, SSA number, etc. This is the lead swindle in smishers.

Free money, laptop, lottery win

This one comes in the promise of a free hot gift. The trick used is to get you to click on a link that downloads identity-stealing software right into your phone. Beware i-Phone users especially!

Cash now

A smishing message could be short and sweet like, “Short on cash? Reply here.” Another way to get a response from you to grab personal information or download problem software to your phone.

What you can do –

Fact is that we all need to be vigilant in ways that we’ve never thought of before. Safety first.
The Old Gray Mare of DressYourHorse.com
The Old Gray Mare writes for www.DressYourHorse.com and her Blog sites.
Heidi Rucki brings expertise as a horsewoman, dog lover and stained glass/mosaic artist. She is an accomplished freelance writer in the horse industry. Writing online as The Old Gray Mare, many of her current articles can be found on www.DressYourHorse.com. In the past, Rucki wrote for numerous horse organizations including The Connecticut Horse Council. She took early retirement from Phoenix Home Life where she wrote mutual fund prospectuses and was responsible for their submissions to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Old Gray Mare writes to share knowledge and her love of horses for everyone but especially for novice and new horse owners. Besides her two main websites, she has recently published three new blog sites. Of those, her favorite is www.BeautyOfHorses.com.
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