Government impersonation: Social Security, IRS and Medicare
A caller or recorded message claims your Social Security number has been suspended, you owe back taxes or your Medicare card needs replacing.
Red flags
If you hear or read any of these, stop and check with someone.
- A recorded voice says your Social Security number has been suspended or linked to a crime
- You are threatened with arrest, deportation or the loss of your benefits today
- Payment is demanded by gift card, wire, cryptocurrency or a payment app
- They already know a detail or two about you and use it to make the rest sound true
- Caller ID shows an official-looking number or agency name
What to do
- Hang up. No federal agency opens with a threat over the phone.
- Do not press any key, even the one that claims to remove you from the list.
- If you are worried it might be real, call the agency yourself on the number from your own paperwork or its official website.
- Never read out a Social Security, Medicare or bank number to somebody who called you.
- Report the call at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
Three facts that end most of these calls
- A Social Security number cannot be suspended. It is a number. There is no mechanism to switch it off, so any call claiming otherwise is a scam.
- The IRS writes first. It contacts people about a debt by letter, in the mail, and gives you the right to question the debt and appeal it. It does not open with a phone call threatening arrest.
- No government agency takes gift cards. Not iTunes cards, not Google Play cards, not a wire to a stranger, not cryptocurrency. The moment payment is requested that way, the conversation is over.
Why the caller ID looks right
Displaying a false number on somebody's phone is easy and costs nothing. Treat what appears on your screen as decoration rather than evidence, in the same way you would treat the return address handwritten on an envelope.
If they already know things about you
They often do. Names, a street, sometimes the last four digits of something. Data about all of us leaks constantly. Knowing a detail about you proves nothing at all about who is calling.
Last updated Aug 18, 2026, 7:59 PM. Free to print and hand out. No permission needed.