Scam alert.

[usonian]

Last edited Sat Apr 19, 2025, 12:58 AM - Edit history (1)

Found this at Daily Kos.

Definitely bogus.

This may have been mentioned before but this post has a recognizable graphic.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/17/2317135/-Scam-Email-Alert

Arriving to inboxes is this, addressed to a email account and not a personal name.
Also, the sender address SSA-ID-#######@gov.com is highly suspect, not ending with the appropriate @ssa.gov. It’s not a legit address. It’s all wrong. Don’t bite.
The perpetrator even instructs to use a personal laptop or home computer, sheesh!

Be warned, is all. The current environment in government gives rise to scams and panic induced decision making.

Non-techie users might not know the "tells" like suspect email addresses, so techies share. Hope this helps.

Edit to reinforce my reply:

DO NOT TO CLICK ON ANYTHING in an email or message that you doubt, but to log in to the official site (type it in by hand so you know it's right) and do your business there. Be it SS, your bank, online stores and services.

[Bayard]

1. Makes me wonder now about the Medicare email I just received

It says--"You Have a New Electronic Medicare Summary Notice Available"

It says its from medicare.gov

[usonian]

2. The safe thing to do in all cases of email or messages ...

Is NOT TO CLICK ON ANYTHING, but to log in to the official site (type it in by hand so you know it's right) and do your business there. Be it SS, your bank, online stores and services.

You don't have to be a techie to follow this advice. It's solid.

The old "do not click" rule is really good.

[slightlv]

3. Thanks for the heads up! N/t

[Iamscrewed]

4. Expectations

Expect alot more

[progree]

5. The baddies can spoof email addresses too, so even a perfectly legitimate email address does

not mean the email is OK.

Its been well-known for years that phone numbers can be spoofed, so that a perfectly legitimate number can show up in caller id, but actually its a scammer. I learned a couple of months ago that the same is now true of email addresses. So like you say, the only certain recourse is to log into the official website (not the one in the email) and check for messages / notifications.

[orangecrush]

6. DOGE has a side line.

[BigmanPigman]

7. Thank YOU!!!!!

I wish you'd let me know of ALL scams since somehow they end up causing too many horrific problems. Living alone and not being tech saavy they see me as a sitting duck.

[usonian]

8. I can't know them ALL.

AI is generating personalized scams now.

The Rise of Adaptive Phishing: When AI Learns to Manipulate

https://cacm.acm.org/blogcacm/the-rise-of-adaptive-phishing-when-ai-learns-to-manipulate/

It's not too, too high tech, but this scam brought it to mind.

Golden "no click" rule works.

PS have family share a "secret" because AI mimics voices.

[BigmanPigman]

9. I'm slowly learning their tricks of the trade

but these scam artists do it for a living and no matter how tech saavy and current I think I am they always pull another card out of their sleeves.

The famous scam centers in India give kickbacks to the police and government. It could be stopped but the govt is making big bucks for their economy so of course they do not so anything. I did research after they got me ($10,000). Fortunately I woke up and listened to my gut and stopped it then I had my entire computer cleaned in 2024 and now I still can't use it due to more crap.

[usonian]

10. It's OK to ask here. People are glad to help.

A tech blog would be intimidating. And we see most of the same garbage ourselves, but know how to spot the scams. (Better)

I got an email claiming to be AAA, but it was sent from [e-mail] instead. Helps that I ran email servers for years, but I don't expect most other people to understand how to fish out that info.

Just ask when in doubt.

[BigmanPigman]

11. Thanks again.

One of my problems is that I don't ask for help when I should.

For example, last night I spent 3AM-5AM trying to figure out how to get YouTube on my older, back up tablet. Now I think I screwed up both tablets and maybe my desktop if they are somehow all connected. Instead of fixing stuff I create even more problems. Tech always wins.

I'm supposed to have a computer guy come by on Wed and he needs to come here since I don't understand how they are all connected with passwords, usernames, phone numbers,
email addresses, etc. It hurts my brain and I freak out when I can't even do simple things like what to do if you change a phone number or email address?