By Brandon P. Smith, Public Affairs Specialist, Social Security Administration-Cleveland Downtown
The Inspector General for the Social Security Administration (SSA) has designated March 4, 2021 as National “Slam the Scam” Day—an outreach campaign to raise public awareness of government imposter telephone scams. This is part of National Consumer Protection Week, February 28 – March 6, 2021. We are asking you to share information about “Slam the Scam” Day with your clients, friends, and family.
In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission received over 178,000 complaints of government imposter scams. Of those, 10% said they lost money to a scammer—a total of $174.2 million. To prevent further losses, we urge everyone to exercise caution when receiving calls from someone claiming to be from a government agency. To prevent further losses, we urge everyone to exercise caution when receiving calls from someone claiming to be from a government agency.
Our consumer protection message is simple:
- Hang up on suspicious calls from “government officials” calling about a problem with your Social Security number or account.
- NEVER make payments with gift cards, wire transfers, or by mailing cash.
- Report Social Security scams to OIG.SSA.GOV.
- Report other scams to reportfraud.ftc.gov.
We have an outreach kit with the following resources you can use in your communications:
- Details of National “Slam the Scam” Day events on Twitter and Facebook;
- A Social Security phone scam awareness flyer you can email or print;
- Facebook and Twitter content that you can customize or use as is;
- Infographics you can disseminate or print as bookmarks, coasters, stickers or labels, or card stock; and
- A list of resources and information about government imposter scams to use and share.
With your continued support, together, we can help protect your clients, friends, and family from losing their hard-earned money.
Photo courtesy pexels.com
