I assume it's a scam

[dreamshark]

Got a call at home today from "Rachel Riley," who asked for me by name. She did not identify what organization she was supposedly representing. Once I confirmed my name she asked for the last 4 digits of my Social Security number "for verification." I said I wasn't giving her any information when I didn't know who she was. Sounding a little hurt she repeated that she was "Rachel Riley."

"Yes, but why are you calling me?"
"I'm calling about some personal business of yours."
"What personal business would that be?"
"I can't discuss it until I verify your identity. But it's something that I'm sure you want to clear up."

At this point I hung up. It seems obvious that it's some kind of scam, but what exactly was she after? The last 4 digits of a SSN are not really good for much. Could it be someone that has obtained my full SSN and was trying to verify that they had the right one before doing something nefarious with it?

Has anyone else gotten a call like this recently?

Comments

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I knew I recognized that name!

Rachel Riley is the math genius on "8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown" which is not really a game show, but sort of is. You should have told her that you'd be willing to divulge the number in a series of increasingly complex puzzles.

[guppiecat]

That is a classic debt collection tactic.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

What do you mean? I don't have any uncollected debts.

[guppiecat]

I'm not saying you do.

Certain types of debts in certain states are forbidden from being discussed with anyone but the person who owns the debt. Since they are hard to collect, they typically wind up collected by an agency whose job it is to track down the person (skiptracing). Since they often just have a name to go by, they call all the people with that name and get them to verify their identity somehow, such as matching part of the SSN. If that matches, they'll ask if you ever did X at Y, which matches the debt record. If that matches, they start threatening your credit rating or offering to help you pay the debt.

My guess is that there is someone else out there with a similar name as yours, and that the SSN's wouldn't match (presuming they're asking about the last four, if they're asking about the first five, they're probably scammers trying to complete a record). Since they wouldn't match, they'd know they have the wrong person and go after others on their list.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I still wouldn't tell them. There are too many places that I call that think that verifying the last four digits constitutes security, and I wouldn't want someone to be able to spoof me.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard of that.

Knowing that, I even more firmly believe that the best tactic is to hang up. While I no longer have interactions with them, I've had my dealings with debt collectors, and they're fucking evil. Thwarting debt collectors is a fine and admirable thing to do.

[quility.livejournal.com]

Yeah i wouldn't either. Thanks for upping our awareness.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I did, and I have a relatively common name, as do you.

K.