As I prepare for my upcoming retirement, I recently applied for Social Security benefits. As a warning to fellow Mechanics’ Institute members in my age range, I then received an email after I applied for benefits that read simply that I needed to call a phone number 877-772-3794, to talk to someone about "reviewing your earnings record." I did a web search before calling and found a scam alert [https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/social-security-scam-alert] from a news website that listed this number. I very nearly called that number before checking so I want to put this out there: scammers have a lot of publicly available information about us including our age (and other details). Chances are the timing of the email was intended to arrive just after I applied for retirement benefits and boy did the criminals get that timing right this time.
If you are not 100% sure that an email comes from the person or agency it claims to come from then do not respond. If you are unsure how to check for fraud please ask a librarian -- that's what we're here for.
Beware and always be aware everyone.
Additional resources:
Unwanted calls, emails, or texts: https://consumer.ftc.gov/unwanted-calls-emails-texts
Scams & Identity theft: https://consumer.gov/scams-identity-theft
Reporting Fraud: https://consumer.ftc.gov/media/how-report-fraud-reportfraudftcgov
