Beware of scam calls from the Social Security Administration

Last week I received a phone call that froze my heart in its tracks and sent my anxiety skyrocketing; it was from a Washington D.C. number. Since I generally do not answer calls from numbers I don’t recognize, I let this one go to voice mail. The message I heard was bone-chilling (as it would be to anyone in the same financially-disadvantaged boat as I am): “the Social Security Administration is going to cut off your payments until further clearance. If you believe this is in error, call (this number).” Of course it was “in error” though I did not call them back until today, at which time I got this message, “Your call cannot be completed as dialed” twice, once I got a busy signal and the fourth time I dialed I got dead air.

I had been genuinely worried after I got those messages from the alleged “Social Security Administration (SSA),” though on the other hand — because I was raised with the mindset to “question everything you hear/read and don’t take everything at face value” — I thought I smelled something fishy. going on, like something was not quite right. For one, because it was a robocall, and two, I thought I had read somewhere that federal governmental agencies, such as the IRS and so on, generally will not call you but rather send mail. Today after I spoke to an actual employee at the SSA, I learned that they would not make robocalls and that yes, they would probably send a hard-copy letter rather than call people.