Let's Foil the Scammers

Let me try this again now that my whiner-baby mood has balanced out, apologies.

This morning I received a recorded message "from the Social Security Administration," advising me that I'm in deep, deep trouble because of some illegal activity and I should call an 832-number right away.

Instant panic; my heart stopped beating while it sat in my throat.  My first thought was, "They'll never leave me alone," since I did once have a big brouhaha with the IRS and Bankruptcy court; but I still possess the letter which stated the IRS had 10 years to come after me (in case I hit the lottery); otherwise, have a nice life, weren't they sweet?  I became 'safe' in 2014, but I still have the nagging fear that one day my bank account will be wiped clean by an old creditor hiding in the woodwork, and a main reason I'm publishing Ruff Life for free.

Ahhh...it's one of those phone scams we hear about:  Never give out any information; plus the IRS and SSA wouldn't be calling out of the red, white or blue.  I looked up whether or not I should report the case, but I don't have much more than the phone number the crook advised me to call to fix my problem.  I decided if it continues I will; otherwise I'll just write a friendly reminder to be on guard, particularly the elderly. 

From the Inspector General's website:

"In some cases, as with the I.R.S. calls, the criminals are quite aggressive and try to scare their targets into action. In one common tactic, the fake callers tell the potential victim that his or her Social Security number has been “suspended” because of suspicious activity or because it has been involved in a crime. The callers may ask their victims to confirm their Social Security numbers. They even say that the victims must withdraw cash from their bank accounts and that the accounts will be frozen if the victims don’t act quickly."

Whenever I listen to those public service announcements I secretly pat myself on the head because I KNOW I'll never fall for one of those scams; but this morning reminded me that if we're not careful we can fall for some pretty stupid shit.

Here's what I'd like to know:  with all our technological advances, isn't there some way to press a certain number to automatically have the FRAUD call transferred to a FRAUD department?  

I know there are ways to call-forward, but it would be nice if, while listening to some unscrupulous person, we could just press some buttons; something simple like we learned for Operator Assistance and Emergency?  How about 666 for the Antichrist?  Program that into Granny or Gramp's old fashioned table phone like you do for 911 so it doesn't require much thought, and let's see if the problem can be reduced.

Isn't it at least worth a try?  Or am I the last to know this already exists?