Tips to Protect Yourself from Government Imposters and Scams

Once you get to a certain age, making sure there is no fraudulent activity in your social security becomes very important as it can affect your main source of income, your livelihood. Most people who are victims of social security scams provide their information to wrong people out of fear. With the existence of burner phones, fake emails and social media, it has become significantly easy for con artists to make their living.

There is hope for you after all. With the right tools, methods and knowledge, you can avoid being scammed. Here’s how:

1. Do not click on links or open attachments from unknown senders. The worst mistake you can make is opening unknown links sent through email or text message especially if you are not very conversant with technology. Viruses and hackers get into your system through such links. If anyone sends you a message or email with a link attachment claiming to be from the government, do not open it or send it to other people, just delete it.
2. Protect your personal details. When directly asking for money does not work, scammers might try asking for your personal details including bank information. Do not disclose any information unless you are at the physical office filling a form.
3. You can hang up and block unwanted calls. Your callerID might not always be able to filter out the scam calls. In the case you are in conversation with a scammer, just hang up and call the Social Security Administration directly.
4. Do not send any form of payment to a person claiming to work with the government. Whether they request cash, crypto currency or gift cards.

Scams often start off with a call or text message from a random person who claims to work for the government. Some of them go as far as telling you their employer ID so that they sound legitimate. And in some cases, they might even have some of your personal information, like your name or address.

Most scammers go for the conventional government offices while others come up with their own government agencies to throw you off. This is often their introduction, followed by the inevitable alarm that you need to either send money immediately or give up more personal information. If you forget all else, keep in mind that government offices do not call, text or email their consumers requesting for personal information or any amount of money.