With inflation now reaching nearly 8 percent year-over-year, it is unsurprising to hear that many Americans—especially senior citizens—might fall for scams that promise financial relief.
According to personal finance expert Susan Tompor of the Detroit Free Press, some scam artists are sending “letters to seniors to tell them that they need to call a toll-free number to activate their cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security benefits.”
“The mail looked legitimate because the scammers sent letters that included the Social Security Administration letterhead,” she added. “But no one needs to call a toll-free number or take any action to receive cost-of-living adjustments on Social Security benefits.” That 5.9 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), which the Social Security Administration (SSA) approved last fall, is automatically calculated into all payments that head out to the sixty-four million Social Security recipients.
Furthermore, it appears that fraudsters are getting more adept at knowing how to make their caller ID information more realistic. To fool their victims, scammers have even begun creating fake ID badges that many federal employees use.
“Scammers have been known to text potential victims a picture of a government badge to reassure you that they’re the real deal,” Tompor wrote. “The con artists might rattle off real ‘badge numbers’ or send emails with attachments containing personal information about a phony…
