By Raleigh Perry
BUFORD, Ga. | Since I am home all the time and within an arm’s reach of the telephone, I will answer 99 percent of the calls. Today there are two calls on specific topics that are of interest to me.
Perry
First, I must get between four and six calls a day to talk about my new Social Security benefits, each asking if I have my new card. These calls are all from India and that is easiest enough to spot if you know the signs. First, the caller ID on my phone will say either “anonymous,” “unavailable,” or give the name of some company or a person, most of which are unknown to me, but all the numbers have a 404, 770 or 678.
When I answer, there is no voice immediately, that comes after a rather interesting squeak. Then an Indian tells me that he is calling from Social Security and he wants to know if I have signed up for type C Social Security or have my card. He always gives an American name, like Alex, John, Bill or something like that, but his accent is so thick you could not cut through it with a machete.
The calls are quite different from a lot of robocalls. I always ask them where they are calling from and the answer is always “Florida.” He is supposedly calling from Florida, but has an Atlanta area code. Fishy!? Yes.
The thing here to remember is that Social Security will never call you unless you have a question and have requested a call. Or, if the call indicates it is coming from the Internal Revenue Service, they do not call either. Such communications from both agencies are through the mail.
The solution: I would suggest that you just hang up, but if you have the time and guts to talk to them, instead have fun. I have fun. I guess I just like to be hung up on from time to time.
These callers from India are doing nothing more than trying to phish your sensitive information out of you in order to steal your identity. They know your name, they know your address, but they do not know your Social Security Number and that is what they want.
The second scam is quite different and right now, quite new. I have had three of them in the past few days. Again, the calls that have come in have either the same “anonymous,” “unavailable,” or the name of some company you have never heard of. These calls are from the United States, most probably. What these callers want to do is to scam you into “roofing” your house. They open with your name and address and the “fact,” of course, that they will be in your neighborhood and would like to inspect your roof because of possible damage from a recent hail storm. But in reality, there have been no hail storms in this area. “Oh yes, on June 17, there was one.” Another caller told me July 19th.
These scams are not necessarily to rip you off. They are going to rip your insurance company off. If you had hail in your area, call a respected local roofer. Don’t deal with these irritating anonymous calls. They could scam you. Just hang up.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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