Ohio Attorney General's Office warns of government impersonation scams

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- National Consumer Protection Week is observed during the first full week of March each year, to encourage consumers to take advantage of their rights, make informed decisions, and educate themselves on the latest scams.

As part of that effort, Thursday is Slam the Scam Day. The Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General created the initiative in 2020, to raise awareness about government imposter scams -- something the Ohio Attorney General's Office is well aware of.

"By volume, we're really trying to prevent a lot of different types of scams, especially government and business imposter scams," said Ryan Lippe, a Consumer Educator with the Attorney General's Office.

Lippe said a government impersonation scam often starts with a call, email, text, or social media message from someone claiming to work for a government agency like the Social Security Administration, the IRS or Medicare.

"You don't know this, but we're going to give you a new Medicare card. We just need your Social Security number," was just one example Lippe gave of a scam call.

No matter how official the call sounds, Lippe said a legitimate government agency will never call, email or text someone to ask for money or personal information. Only a scammer will do that.

"Medicare is not sitting down and making a hundred million phone calls," Lippe said. "They are not doing that, but scammers are. They're using dialers, they're using international calling, they're using caller ID spoofing to hide the phone number they're calling from."

Those who receive a call they aren’t expecting from a number they don’t recognize should not answer.

"You can just let it go to voicemail, and if it's important, they'll leave a message," said Lippe. "But the important thing is to not call back that phone number. Any phone number they give you may be a scam call center. Hang up and call back the legitimate phone number that you've independently verified is truly the phone number for Social Security or Medicare. Calling back the legitimate phone number is a great first step. And then, the second step is, report it to our office."

Lippe said reporting these scams puts it on the radar of the Attorney General's Office, so they are able to educate other consumers, and take action against these bad actors if it gets to that point.