The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office announced on June 19 that a fraudster has been emailing fake notices to residents in Yavapai County claiming that their Social Security numbers are about to be suspended by the Social Security Administration.
“The scam is done by e-mail and appears to have a legitimate Social Security letterhead,” the YCSO press release stated. “It will also include a case ID [which is phony]. The headline will be “Subject: Suspension of SSN due to criminal activities”. The body of the e-mail will indicate your SS card and number will be suspended within 24 hours because the FTC [Federal Trade Commission] has discovered unlawful activities in Texas which involved your personal identity. It outlines the charges, which are false, and claims that 25 bank accounts were opened under your identity and are being used in a $14 million fraud scheme.”
The email attempts to trick the recipient into clicking on a hyperlink to appeal the claim by contacting the “Office of Inspector General SSA” or by calling a provided phone number. Residents should do neither.
YCSO fraud investigator Ron Norfleet said that the department has “seen a couple” of reports of this new scam. Norfleet said that Social Security will always correspond with people through physical mail, which should be residents’ first indication that an email could be a scam.
Other local fraud cases in recent months include:
• A resident transferred $40,000 in Bitcoin on Feb. 27 to an unknown individual after being falsely informed that he was a suspect in a Chinese child pornography investigation.
• YCSO has documented over a dozen calls by scammers identifying themselves as actual YCSO staff members such as Chief Jeff Newnum and Sgt. Scott Joy in attempts to extort payment. The Sedona Police Department has also documented scammers impersonating SPD over the phone in attempts to defraud businesses in Uptown in February.
• On April 14, a Sedona man was defrauded when he sent $3,900 to what he believed to be the Flagstaff Police Department to avoid an arrest warrant for missed jury duty.
“Always be cautious, slow down, take your time, don’t click on links in emails or text messages and never give out your personal or financial information to people you do not know,” the YCSO press release stated. “YCSO has seen many tragic cases of people losing many thousands of dollars in these types of scams.”
“People have to let us know when they receive these scams because that’s how we put out the public service announcement, so hopefully nobody will fall for that,” Norfleet said.
Residents experiencing attempts at law enforcement impersonation can call Norfleet at the YCSO Fraud Unit at (928) 771-3299.
