PHONE SCAMS are happening in the area, again. A nice gentleman called the newsroom Tuesday to inform us that he received a phone call from someone claiming to be from Social Security.

He knew it was not a real call and told the voice on the other end that he would not give any information. Then he hung up.

“The phone number was from 814,” he said. But when he tried to call the number back, he found it was a one-way number. What he did next is exactly what he was supposed to do — he called Social Security.

According to ssa.gov, the official website of the Social Security Administration, “Criminals continue to impersonate SSA and other government agencies in an attempt to obtain personal information or money. Scammers might call, email, text, write or message you on social media claiming to be from the Social Security Administration or the Office of the Inspector General.” Report such attempts immediately to oig.ssa.gov/report.

As to the phone number coming from what looked like an 814 area code, it was a spoofed number. Spoofing is when a caller intentionally disguises the phone number they are actually calling from to make it harder to trace.

The Federal Communications Commission reports, “Scammers often use neighbor spoofing so it appears that an incoming call is coming from a local number, or spoof a number from a company or a government agency that you may already know and trust.” Complaints should be filed at https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us