Just hang up

Don’t be rattled by robocallss
By: 
Staff Report

Anita Jacobsgaard recognizes the moment — ask her for personal information, and she’ll hang up on you.
That’s what she did last Thursday, when she received a robocall allegedly from the Social Security office. The recorded message said there seemed to have been an error in her account, and the Social Security office needed more information.
If she didn’t provide the information, her Social Security checks would be terminated.
“They’re trying to get elderly people to hit the panic button and give out information,” she said.
She didn’t panic. She hung up.
“I wasn’t about to listen to their schpiel,” she added.
Jacobsgaard called the Joliet Social Security office to report the call, and learned that that office receives about 30 similar reports every day.
What the Social Security office told her to do when she gets a call asking for personal information — it’s even on the office’s answering system — applies to every such call, whether the caller claims to be from the Social Security office, the FBI, the jury commission, the county sheriff or the electric company. Just hang up.