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“Members Helping Members”
April 2020
A Recent Scam Experience
By Jeff Wilkinson, President, Sun City Summerlin Com-
puter Club, NV
December 2019 issue, The Gigabyte Gazette
www.scscc.club
Clearmeadows11 (at) gmail.com
Recently I received the “Social Security” scam call,
the recorded message informing me that I should
call an 800 number because my account was about
to be suspended. I decided to play along and see
what the suspected scam pitch was; since I was
99.99% sure that Social Security doesn’t call you.
I called the 800 number, exclaimed my surprise that
there was a problem and breathlessly asked what
the problem was. The responder, “Officer Ronald
Smith” explained, in an almost unintelligible accent,
that he was a senior investigator and I should get a
pencil and paper and write down his name and
badge number, which he proceeded to give me. He
then went on to outline the “problem” which includ-
ed seven bank accounts opened under my social
security number. He said the accounts had been
used for money laundering and an investigation
was underway with an arrest warrant about to be
issued. In addition, there were multiple credit cards
also under my social security number which had
been linked to illegal activity.
April 2020 1
Volume 38, Issue 01
“Officer Smith” then asked if these were my ac-
counts. Upon my answering No, he explained he
needed to know how many bank accounts and their
approximate balance and how many credit cards I
had and their credit limits. I responded with fictitious
information of course. He advised me that this con-
versation was being recorded and I was repeatedly
told to listen to his instructions very carefully. When
I told him in a frightened, exasperated voice that the
accounts he described were not mine, he wanted
the local police department phone number so he
could call to see if we could clarify some additional
information. I gave him a fake phone number and
he put me on hold; he came back a short time later
and said that the number I gave him was incorrect!
“Officer Smith” then told me I could get the number
from the yellow pages or Google and said he would
wait while I looked it up. When I asked why he didn’t
have it, he exclaimed he did but was not allowed to
give it to me. I looked up the number in the city I
had claimed to live in and gave it to him; he again
put me on hold and returned a couple of minutes
later. He said he had a senior investigator on his
other line, and she would be calling me. I was to put
him on hold when she called. Then my phone rang!
The call was from the number I had provided which
was the number of the Palo Alto, CA police depart-
ment! “Officer Smith” told me to put him on hold and
to add the new caller to the conversation.
Throughout this entire 22-minute ordeal he had not
yet asked for any money or access to my computer.
I was tempted to continue the charade, but the lan-
guage barrier became intolerable along with the lev-
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