Cleveland.com | Teresa Dixon Murray
The phone call goes something like this: “This is Robert from the Social Security Administration. Your Social Security number has been associated with a crime in Texas, involving a car wreck in which someone was badly injured. You are in danger of having your Social Security number suspended and having your assets frozen. But we can help you if you move your money to an account that is government-protected.”
This is one of the newest scams targeting innocent people, often senior citizens.
Consumers these days often feel as if they’re playing a cruel and exhausting game of Ping-Pong as they’re swatting away con-artists during phone calls, emails, text messages and letters that never seem to stop.
The threats are only getting worse, especially for senior citizens.
“Seniors have some vulnerability for scammers,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in an interview. “My sense is that it’s on the rise.”
Older consumers are often targeted more because they tend to have more money and they tend to be a little more isolated, Yost said.