Scammers flood phones with calls claiming to be from Social Security Administration

Scammers have been calling people trying get their personal information. Many of the scammers are claiming to be with the Social Security Administration and are telling people their Social Security cards have been suspended.

Marvin McKelvy received a phone call from a scammer.

“The guy starts out, ‘This is the Social Security Administration and we have suspended your Social Security account,'” McKelvy said.

McKelvy said he asked the person on the phone to verify whom they were calling or his phone number, but they could do neither.

“As soon as he took a breath, I said, ‘Who are you calling?’ He said, ‘Well, we’re calling you.’ I said, ‘Well, I understand that, but who is ‘you’,” he said.

He said he hung up without giving out his information.

“It makes you feel a little bit violated,” he said.

McKelvy said scams of some sort have been around for years, and scammers will continue to find new ways to get people’s information.

“It’s not nothing new. They’re just getting a lot better at penetrating in and getting the information,” he said.

He said people probably give out their information, in part, because they are afraid of getting in trouble with the government. He said people should report if they receive a scam phone call.

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office received more than 80 complaints of these types of scams from March through June. More than one dozen of those complaints came from mid-Missouri.

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said people should write down the number if they think they are getting a scam call and verify it before calling back at the verified number.

He also said most legitimate companies will not call and ask for personal information and may only ask for it if someone calls them directly.