El senador Merkley presiona a las autoridades para que tomen medidas enérgicas contra las llamadas automáticas fraudulentas de la seguridad social

For years, robocallers have swindled millions of dollars from American families and eroded public trust in the government agencies they impersonate.

Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley recently demanded that the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) take necessary steps to protect American families from fraudulent Social Security-related robocall schemes that are victimizing tens of thousands of consumers.

“These unsolicited robocalls are not just an inconvenience to consumers, they are targeted attacks intended to collect personal information for monetary gain,” Merkley said. “Every call a consumer receives in which the caller pretends to be a government official will make consumers question the legitimacy of authentic communication from government agencies, including the SSA.”

“Solicito que la SSA y la FTC compartan qué medidas se están tomando para limitar las estafas de llamadas automáticas en general, y específicamente para abordar las llamadas automáticas que se hacen pasar por agencias federales”, continuó Merkley.

Although the FCC acknowledges that “unwanted calls are far and away the biggest consumer complaint” the agency receives, unauthorized call scams continue to be a prevalent, persistent issue. Earlier this year, Senator Merkley received a number of automated calls impersonating an official from the Social Security Administration, in which the caller claimed to have received suspicious information and threatened to “suspend” his Social Security Number (SSN) immediately – unless Senator Merkley could confirm his SSN over the phone.

En 2018, 35 000 estadounidenses en todo Estados Unidos informaron esta llamada específica, lo que resultó en pérdidas de $10 millones. En el año anterior, solo 3200 familias se vieron afectadas por esta estafa, perdiendo solo $210,000, lo que destaca la gravedad y la frecuencia cada vez mayores de los esquemas de llamadas automatizadas fraudulentas.

In April, Senator Merkley and Congresswoman Anna G. Eschoo (D-CA) introduced the Regulatory Oversight Barring Obnoxious (ROBO) Calls and Texts Act of 2019. This legislation would create a Robocall Division within the FCC Enforcement Bureau to reinforce robocall regulations, and require the FCC to develop regulations to keep consumers safe from fraudulent robocall schemes.