Eupora Police Chief Gregg Hunter is warning local residents about a telephone scam involving Social Security numbers.
He said the Eupora Police Department has received several reports recently of unknown callers requesting a person’s Social Security number.
The callers pretend to be with an out-of-state police department or organization, including one from El Paso, Texas. They claim that drug dealers who have been arrested stole the person’s SSN and ask them to verify the number, according to Hunter.
He said the out-of-state callers do not have legitimate phone numbers for law enforcement agencies and that such calls are scams. The scammers are targeting senior citizens in an attempt to scare them into revealing their Social Security number, according to Hunter. Some local residents have fallen for the scam and shared their SSN, he said.
The EPD learned about the scam after some victims told family members, who then reported the calls to the police department.
“Under no circumstance do you give your Social Security number over the phone,” Hunter said.
If the EPD does learn that someone local is the victim of an actual identity theft crime, Hunter said they’ll either be asked to come to the police station or a uniformed officer will visit them.
If you believe your Social Security number has been compromised, call the Mississippi Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division at 1-601-359-4296 or 1-800-281-4418, or report online at www.ic3.gov (FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center). Additionally, one may call the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213 to speak to the SSA.
