BALTIMORE — Government impostor scams are the top complaint to the Federal Trade Commission, and fraud reports are expected to increase this holiday season.
“They’re looking for often cost-of-living increases,” said Special Agent in Charge AJ Monaco with the Major Case Unit Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General.
On December 30, more than 7 million Social Security beneficiaries will receive an 8.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment. Scammers are hoping to get to it first by tricking consumers into providing personal information to steal their identities.
“People are aware of that, so they’re playing off the idea that you need to contact these particular scammers in order to effectuate your cost of living increase,” Monaco said.
His office has seen it happen already.
“I just saw one that kind of came across my desk the other day. Sometimes people can lose hundreds of thousands of dollars and it’s heart-wrenching because someone in their 70's just doesn’t have the ability to make it up,” Monaco added.
These scams happen by phone, email, and text message, directing consumers to the MySSA account website.
“What we saw recently, was very devious, is a very good copy of that website but just misdirected somewhere. It wasn’t to the SSA, so if you didn’t know better, it’s an exact copy,” said Monaco.
Monaco believes information from that website could easily be used to start-up an account, and these scams are so successful because of the number of people it impacts and victims’ trust in the government.
“They will liquidate their savings because they believe what they’re doing is required by their government,” added Monaco.
SSA beneficiaries don’t need to do anything to receive that cost-of-living increase, and should ignore any messages telling them otherwise.
And keep in mind, government grants require an application and are for a specific reason. If someone contacts you about obtaining free money in the form of a grant, it’s likely a scam. Click here for more information.