Huntington woman foils scammer

HUNTINGTON -- Betty Barrett has a message for people in Huntington and elsewhere: Watch out for Social Security scams.

Barrett, of Huntington, this week was the target of an attempted scam, and foiled it by contacting authorities.

"I just want more people to become aware of the situation so they can't be taken advantage of," Barrett said.

Robert Jeffries, a public affairs specialist for Social Security offices in West Virginia, said Social Security scams happen on a weekly basis.

"We try to encourage the public to not give anyone their information over the phone," he said. "Normally, a person is not going to call from a Social Security office unless you have contacted them."

Monday, a man described as having a heavy foreign accent contacted Barrett at her residence.

The man said he was calling from a national medical institute, Barrett said.

"He told me they were doing a check of senior citizens who receive Social Security," she said. "From there, he asked me to verify my name, address and bank routing number. I think he was fishing for me to tell him my bank account number."

Barrett mentioned that the man said her Social Security check would be cut off within three months if she didn't allow him to have her information.

"That's when I went to the Social Security office and told them about the situation," she said. "Then they told me that it was a fraud and that it happens very often."

Jeffries said he first heard of Social Security scams in the north-central part of West Virginia in the fall of 2007. He said they have targeted other counties as well.

Although Jeffries doesn't know how the scams started, he theorized that scam artists know that a significant part of West Virginia's population is older and perhaps more vulnerable to such fraud attempts.

"In order for these scams to stop, people need to verify that whoever they talk to works for the Social Security office," Jeffries said.

If a person wants verification of a Social Security employee, contact the National Social Security Service at 800-777-1213.