This morning I got a strange call. A woman called and asked for the person in charge of book keeping. Immediately I smelled scam so I played along for a while (but was sleepy from my all nighter). Anyways, she started quoting figures my business owes for social security then asked me what my name was. I told her David Smith...after a while I just told her to send us whatever refund I had coming and hung up on her.

Here is the strange part, the caller ID was listed as US Government. I redialed and got the Social Security Admin. I never caught the woman's name so I couldn't reference the call properly. I will call the IRS tomorrow.

Candini

My favorite scam at work is the guy/gal calls and says "hi! Your CEO (insert name) said to give you call, that you were the right person to help me!" he/she then goes into a story about their father starting an office supply business then dying and the guy needing to get rid of the stuff cheap and 'how much should I put you down for?'. My manager fell for it. I never did cuz my CEO hated me and I knew it. Over 20 years I've received this call about eight times. I usually suggest stabbing the father with a stake as he keeps coming back to life. Gotta love it!
Steve V

Candini,
CallerID spoofing is real. OTOH, from US Gov't, it really could've been the SSA, but with the wrong number. I'd be interested in hearing the resolve...

On my cell phone in the Spring I was getting a famous one -- an indian guy calls about my website host and blahblahblah money blahblah need numbers blahblah. You get the idea.
The first couple of times I saw the # on the CallerID I didn't answer -- I don't usually answer my cell if I don't recognize the # (if it's important they'll leave a message). I Googled the number and found out about the scam, so the next time (that day!) I answered in front of my co-workers, played along... he asked if my named was like Jacob Smith (I said yes even tho it is not), he asked if my website was suchandsuch.com (I said yes, it's certainly not), he said he needed info from me to update somethingorother, and he asked for my fax number, I told him to hold on a sec while I get it... and after a moment I said "Oh, what? Internet scam? Yeah I just Googled your n--" he hung up on me. Hasn't called since. >:-]

More info on that scam for anyone who likes to be informed:
http://www.pointmanspage.com/2005/04/26/866-383-0986/
http://www.google.com/search?q=(866)+383-0986

--Diavo

Yeah, but - Social Security? If it's a scam, they'd be pretty brazen to claim that.

Chances are I wouldn't have thought to do it either, but you shoulda gotten a name, and asked for a callback number (chances are the caller-id number was a main switchboard number) and asked for the problem to be addressed in writing (never hurts to have it on paper.)

It's just worrisome because we've all heard stories of winding up in beaurocratic hell, completely wrongfully, and being unable to sort things out, because the problem wasn't caught at the beginning.

I've done the caller id spoofing(the service I used also automatically changed your voice to either girl or boy).... very very fun.

Well its been a little while and no return calls.....no news is good news. They should have the information before asking me who I am. Wierd.

They tend to do their inquiries through the mail. They like to have things in writing.