There’s a new twist on an old Social Security Scam. Below you will find a recording of a sample call.
In this scheme callers tell their victims that they are going to cancel or suspend the victim’s SSN. The con artists leave a robocall message to scare people into returning the call and revealing Social Security or bank information.
Here’s an example of one of those calls:
These crooks may also mention overdue taxes in addition to threatening to cancel your SSN. Your SSN can’t be cancelled even if you want to.
The best thing to do when you get a call like this?
HANG UP.
People have been taken for many thousands of dollars replying to this type of call.
How do you know it’s a social security scam? The Social Security Administration and the IRS do not EVER seek social security numbers over the phone.
And further, even private companies that the IRS has assigned accounts to will never do any of the following:
- Demand immediate payment with a specific payment method. The IRS and the U.S. government do not accept payment exclusively with prepaid debit cards, Amazon gift cards or bank wire transfers.
- Request that you make a payment to a person or organization other than the U.S. Treasury.
- Threaten to have you arrested immediately for non-payment.
- Demand taxes be paid without giving the taxpayer the opportunity to question or appeal the amount owed.
Even if you do owe money to the IRS, they won’t be calling to ask for a I-tunes card in payment. You can safely ignore these scam calls.
If you have questions, topics or a situation you'd like to discuss, his phone and email are at the top of every page.
Lysander is not an attorney and it is not his intent to offer legal advice.
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“The Social Security Administration and the IRS do not EVER seek social security numbers over the phone.”
That’s what they say, but one time the IRS really did it. I received a suspicious phone call, the caller said they were IRS, and they wanted to verify me by having them give me the last 4 digits of my social security number and me in response giving them the first 5 digits. I said that sounded suspicious, I asked for their phone number, they gave me a phone number and I said I would call them back. A Google search told me the phone number was really IRS. My internet provider offered low price calls to the US so I called the IRS, I answered their verification question, and they gave me genuine information about our dispute.
The way in which they wanted to give the last 4 digits of my SSN and me give them the first 5 digits really is a scammer’s dream. When the IRS files a tax lien, they publicly reveal the last 4 digits of an SSN. Also it used to be that in some US courts the last 4 digits of an SSN would be publicly revealed (more on this in a moment), but not in Tax Court. Also there’s a company called Axciom where you can type in a person’s name and the last 4 digits of their SSN, and get their entire SSN along with other information about the person.
Anyway, at least in the 9th Circuit, the IRS and US Department of Justice can reveal entire SSNs to everyone who has an internet connection and a credit card for PACER. Diamond v. US, docket no. 15-55334 (9th Cir. 2017):
‘The district properly dismissed Diamond’s second cause of action for unauthorized disclosures of his social security number because the disclosures at issue were expressly authorized by statute. See 26 U.S.C. § 6103(h)(4)(A) (providing that a return or return information may be disclosed in a “judicial or administrative proceeding pertaining to tax administration” if the taxpayer is a party to the proceeding). Contrary to Diamond’s contention, this disclosure authorization does not apply only when disclosures are made under seal.’
“And further, even private companies that the IRS has assigned accounts to will never do any of the following:
[…]
Demand taxes be paid without giving the taxpayer the opportunity to question or appeal the amount owed.”
The IRS supposedly gives the taxpayer the opportunity to question but the IRS never answers the question. In a Collection Due Process Hearing, if the taxpayer never received a Notice of Deficiency (for example if the IRS never issued a Notice of Deficiency) then both the IRS’s letter and a statute say that the taxpayer can appeal the underlying tax, but the IRS violates both its own letter and the statute.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration occasionally reports on identity thieves working in the IRS, but not on cohorts in the US Department of Justice. Read a few TIGTA reports. You’ll never know for sure if a scam is coming from inside the IRS or from somewhere else.