Avoyelles DA warns of Social Security phone scam

Avoyelles Parish residents are being warned of a telephone scam claiming to be from the Social Security Administration.

District Attorney Charles Riddle said hundreds of residents have received the fraudulent calls.

The caller claims to be calling from a Social Security office telling the individual their Social Security number is being used fraudulently.

Riddle said many people victimized by the ominous sounding call have agreed to pay the $199 fee the caller says will resolve the situtaion.

“Please hang up in their face if you receive this call,” Riddle said. “DO NOT SEND MONEY!”

Those receiving the call should call Riddle’s office at 318-253-6587 “to let us know if you have received this call and that you hung up on them.”

The editor of the Avoyelles Parish newspapers has received numerous calls of this nature -- some from an Alaska number and others from a Mississippi number.

The call starts off with an automated message and asks that you press “1” to speak to a Social Security Administration agent to discuss the situation.

On the last such call, the editor pressed “1” once and was connected to an “agent” with a very thick foreign accent.

When the “agent” was asked to tell the editor why he called and, since SSA initiated dthe call, if he could tell the editor (a) the Social Security number in question, (b) the name associated with that number (c) and how Social Security knows the editor’s new cell phone number when he has shared it with only a few family members, the “agent” hung up.