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     I received this alarming report anonymously: We have an office ... that began being inundated with calls yesterday, resulting from spoofers using the FO [Field Office] GI [General Information?] line in caller ID. Several of the calls received today related to the   spoofing   report that when the public answers the call, a recording comes on and tells them their SSN [Social Security Number] has been suspended.   If they want more information, they can push   1.    When they push 1, their call is actually routed to the field office GI line. The FO staff conjectures that this in essence sets up a three-party call with the perpetrator muted and listening in.   In other words, the spoofers are directing someone to our office in hopes SSA staff would ask the public identifying questions to check to see if their SSN has been suspended while they listen to the call.

     From Michigan Live: U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington on Thursday, Jan. 30, sentenced Latashya L. Brooks to two years of probation. While on probation, Brooks must participate in a mental health treatment program, take all prescribed medications, and submit to psychological evaluations as directed by her probation officer.   Brooks in October appeared in the federal courthouse in downtown Bay City and pleaded guilty to interstate communication to make a bomb threat. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years� imprisonment, a fine of $250,000, and three years of supervised release. The plea agreement stated Brooks� sentencing guidelines were one year to 18 months. Court records show Judge Ludington departed downward from the guidelines due to Brooks� �limited mental conditions,� �reduced mental capacity,� and it being her first criminal conviction.   The agreement states that Brooks was upset over the Social Security Administration withholding things f...

     From a press release : A Kitsap County [WA] man who ran a business serving as a financial guardian for elderly or disabled clients pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to Social Security Fraud � Representative Payee Fraud. WAYNE JEROME HOUSTON, 61, of Port Ludlow, Washington owned and operated Cross Point Services LLC, a guardianship organization for disabled and vulnerable adults.  ... According to the plea agreement, HOUSTON and his company were responsible for managing the financial affairs of 15-20 clients a month.  HOUSTON had access to the clients� bank accounts so he could pay rent, utilities and other bills for them.  Social Security benefits were paid into some of the accounts, for at least 13 clients who required a representative payee to manage their benefits.  HOUSTON was the representative payee for at least 13 disabled clients.  Beginning in 2010, HOUSTON used his position as guardian to w...

     From a press release (emphasis added): The Department of Justice filed civil actions for temporary restraining orders today in two landmark cases against five companies and three individuals allegedly responsible for carrying hundreds of millions of fraudulent robocalls to American consumers, the Department of Justice announced.  The Department of Justice alleges that the companies were warned numerous times that they were carrying fraudulent robocalls � including government- and business-imposter calls � and yet continued to carry those calls and facilitate foreign-based fraud schemes targeting Americans.  The calls, most of which originated in India, led to massive financial losses to elderly and vulnerable victims across the nation. ... The two cases announced today contain similar allegations.  The defendants in one case are Ecommerce National LLC d/b/a TollFreeDeals.com; SIP Retail d/b/a sipretail.com; and their owner/operator...

     Andrew Saul, Commissioner of Social Security will make his first appearance before a Congressional committee as Commissioner on January 29 at 9:30. It will be before the Senate Special Committee on Aging and the hearing will concern "Social Security Impersonation Scam."       Will the House Social Security Subcommittee schedule even one oversight hearing in this Congress?

     From the Palm Beach Post:   A conservative media commentator who was crowned Mrs. Florida 2016 is headed to prison after a federal judge on Thursday said he wanted to send a message that if you steal from the U.S. government, you're going to jail.   Unless Karyn Turk can convince an appeals court that she doesn't deserve to spend a month behind bars for  stealing her elderly mother's Social Security checks instead of using the money to pay for nursing home care , the Highland Beach, Fla., resident must report to prison on March 2. ...   Since pleading guilty in September to a misdemeanor charge of Social Security fraud, she has been attacked on social media, said her attorney David Tarras.   Turk, who last year was named champion of the year by Best Buddies, a teen mentoring group, has lost her position on various philanthropic groups, he said.   The damage to her reputation and her status in political, business and social circles has be...

     From WSAV : 78-year-old Sheila Conary says it�s been a long seven months in terms of her finances. It started in June of 2019 when she was told by her bank (Wells Fargo) that her account was short. �I noticed I was getting insufficient funds in my checking account and I thought that can�t be because I�ve got money in there,� Conary told me. But she was wrong. Four Social Security checks for the months of February, March, April and May had not been electronically deposited as normal. After going to the local Social Security Administration office she was shocked by the information they provided. �When I went to Social Security they said they couldn�t help me,� said Conary. �They told me I should go to the Bank of America and said my funds had been diverted to an account there, that the change had been set up online by me. I said �no I never did that� and told me I don�t have a Bank of America account.� She now knows that someone somehow was ab...

     There are two stories today.      First, Rowena Isabel Lokeni of Orange County, California has been sentenced to 15 months in prison. Lokeni had fraudently diverted $176,015 in Social Security benefits to herself while working for the Social Security Administration.      Here's the second story, from FA Online: On Youtube, the happy-go-lucky family that goes by the name B.E.A.M. Squad seems to have everything�1.3 million subscribers, a sprawling Palm Beach, Fla. home, exotic travel and a silver Bentley�but they also have a dark, criminal past: According to a 2019 plea deal with the Social Security Administration, they were indicted and arrested for multiple felonies which included stealing Social Security money and filing phony tax returns. Losses to the SSA and the Internal Revenue Service totaled almost $94,000, court documents show. Billy Altidor, 29, and Evanie (Eva) Louis, 27, admit that in 2014 and 2015,...

     From Business Wire : Social Security imposter calls are now the top phone scam in the U.S., making up nearly 10% of all consumer phone complaints registered in BeenVerified�s Spam Call Complaint Monitor . The report, which analyzed more than 200,000 phone calls from 2016 - 2019, noted that Social Security scam calls have skyrocketed in 2019, a 23-fold increase over the same period in 2018. ...

     A Texas woman has been sentenced to ten years in prison for sending bombs to the President, the Governor of Texas and the Acting Commissioner of Social Security.

     From a press release : The Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, Gail S. Ennis, and Commissioner of Social Security Andrew Saul announce the launch of a dedicated online form at https://oig.ssa.gov to receive reports from the public of Social Security-related scams. These scams�in which fraudulent callers mislead victims into making cash or gift card payments to avoid arrest for purported Social Security number problems�skyrocketed over the past year to become the #1 type of fraud reported to the Federal Trade Commission and the Social Security Administration.  To combat these scams, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) will use the new online form to capture data that will be analyzed for trends and commonalities. The OIG will use the data to identify investigative leads, which could help identify criminal entities or individuals participating in or facilitating the scams. Ultimately, these efforts are ...

     From the Mercury News : An employee in a Social Security Administration office and her husband have been indicted in federal court on charges that they stole nearly $45,000 in social security funds intended for others, according to court documents released Monday. Kimberly Dominguez and her husband, Erick Dominguez, are accused of conspiring to commit wire fraud by diverting funds received by Social Security recipients into accounts they controlled, authorities said. The indictment was executed in the Northern District of California. According to court documents, Kimberly Dominguez used her employment with the SSA�s Oakland Teleservice Center to access SSA databases and divert the direct deposits. She and Erick withdrew that money from their own accounts and used it, the indictment alleged. ...

   From the Associated Press : A Social Security Administration employee who accessed numerous accounts and falsified records so he could steal nearly $100,000 from the agency has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison. Nicholas Pao had pleaded guilty in March to theft of government funds and two counts of aggravated identity theft. The 38-year-old Egg Harbor Township [NJ] recently received a 34-month prison term and must pay full restitution to the agenc y. ...