Government-imposter frauds have scammed people out of at least $450 million since 2014.
Some of us in the personal finance realm have a weird little hobby: We try to scam the scam artists.
“Anyone calling from the government saying there’s a problem and you owe money is a scam,” Kathy Stokes, director of AARP’s fraud prevention programs We have our work cut out for us. Government-imposter frauds have scammed people out of at least $450 million since 2014, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Interestingly, people ages 20 to 59 are more likely to report being defrauded this way than those 60 and over, but older people tend to lose more money.
Government impostors Fraudsters are nothing if not flexible. As media coverage of IRS-imposter calls increased last year, scammers switched to impersonating Social Security investigators. The crooks often use software to spoof caller ID services into showing phone numbers for the Social Security Administration or its fraud hotline.Doug Shadel, AARP’s lead researcher on consumer fraud, recently pretended to take the bait.
Kidnapping scams This is a twist on family emergency scams, where someone pretends to be a loved one who urgently needs money — to get out of jail, leave a foreign country or pay a hospital bill, for example. With kidnapping scams, crooks pretend to hold your loved one hostage, often including the sounds of someone screaming or pleading. The call may appear to come from the supposed victim’s phone number.
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