A telephone scam is again working the Dickinson area.
A Dickinson resident received a phone call Thursday morning from a person with a heavy, foreign-sounding accent. The caller stated they were with the Social Security Administration, said Daryl Tabor, president of Wells Fargo Bank in Dickinson.
The caller told the individual that she was being rewarded for being a "good community citizen," Tabor added, and would receive $500 immediately and $500 each month for the next 12 months.
The caller claimed he needed the individual's routing and checking account number to send the money.
The individual, being a former bank employee, recognized the call as fraud and contacted Wells Fargo, and the Dickinson Police Department.
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"The fact is that customers need to beware when they get a call stating they have won something and they're asked to provide any personal account information," Tabor said. "Nobody needs that information to give you something free."
With an elderly population that receives their Social Security checks by direct deposit, Tabor is also concerned this demographic may be more susceptible to this type of scam.
Tabor said if a person receives a telephone call in this regard, you should first contact your bank and then the Social Security office. If fraud is suspected you also should call the police department.
"Anytime, somebody receives a call like that, they should call the police," Tabor said. "They keep track of activity like that."
While the Social Security Administration may ask for banking information over the phone, it will only be if you are signing up for direct deposit of checks, said Susan Solseth, assistant district manager of Social Security for Bismarck-Dickinson.
"In the event we're adjudicating a claim or if a person has filed for Social Security, we may call them and ask for their routing number," she said. "In the course of doing business with us, we do ask those questions. But normally, the individual has filed or requested their checks go to direct deposit."
Solseth's advice to the public is if you have any doubt, don't give out your information.
"Get (the caller's) name, telephone number and their supervisor's name. Then they can call our national office and we can check to verify that they are indeed an employee," she said.
