New scam makes you out to be criminal

Ruse links Social Security info, drugs

Maybe con artists are inspired by the movie “The Mule” where Clint Eastwood plays an octogenarian who hauls cocaine shipments in a Lincoln pickup for a Mexican cartel.

Maybe it’s all the political haggling over “The Wall” where President Donald Trump and his supporters want to beef up border security by creating a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border to combat drug traffickers.

Maybe it’s the El Chapo drug trial in New York.

But here’s a new scam alert: Consumers are getting alarming phone calls from someone who claims to be from law enforcement or Social Security and then scares you into thinking that your Social Security number has been connected to running drugs and money laundering across the border.

The scam tries to convince you that your Social Security number has been suspended because of suspicious activity or because it’s connected to a serious crime.

In some cases, your caller ID may show the real SSA phone number – 800-772-1213 – when the scammers call. But again, the con artists are able to spoof this number and make it look more legitimate.

It’s not really Social Security calling.

The scam isn’t just targeting seniors. “It’s happening to everyone, and they are targeting all ages,” said Amy Nofziger, AARP fraud expert. “They’re definitely casting a wider net to see if they can get anything.”

That’s why it’s important to reach out to millennials and teens, as well, when talking to family members about this scam.

The drug bust angle is relatively new but it does have a ring of truth to it. After all, many times you hear that law enforcement discovers Social Security cards and stacks of counterfeit checks as part of some drug bust.

Dietrich Gruen, 69, blogged in January about how he got snowed.

“It was a painful story to have to write,” said Gruen, who lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

The caller, who claimed to be from law enforcement, claimed Gruen’s Social Security number was found in two drug houses in El Paso, Texas, which had been recently raided by the U.S. Marshals.

He spent 17 minutes on the phone with the scammers. As a pastor of a local church, he wanted to cooperate.

“They gave me a badge number, a case number,” he said. “I had a bench warrant for my arrest.”

He felt like officials initially viewed him as “a guy laundering money and running drugs across the border. So let’s get him.”

But Gruen said that at one point he felt law enforcement soon understood he wasn’t involved in criminal activity.

They seemed like they were willing to help him clear his name. So he asked questions and did what was asked. “They did get my Social Security number,” he said. “The whole number.”

The scammers sounded real, not like someone operating out of a backroom in India or another country. “They sounded trustworthy, authoritative,” he said. Sometimes, callers play up the various data breaches where your personal data could have been stolen in the past – only to be used now by the criminal element.

AP One scammer said law officers found personal data during a drug bust.