Tag: government

A REAL SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICE GAVE ME A FLYER WITH A SCAM PHONE NUMBER ON IT

“WE NEED TO let you know you have been selected for $100 in rewards.”

It was a cheery automated message, not what I expected when I called the number for the Social Security Administration’s primary office in Manhattan. The message went on: “Simply press 1 now to be connected to a live agent and claim your gift today.”

I double-checked the number, which a Social Security employee had just given me at the agency’s local office in Harlem in late February. I needed to replace a lost card, which was a service only offered at certain locations, the agent told me. He slid me a flyer and circled the contact information for the office in the Financial District in Manhattan.

“You can call this number to try making an appointment,” the agent told me.

Still sitting in the lobby of the Harlem building, I dialed the number a couple more times, and each time reached a different grifter: I was eligible for another $100 gift card to Walmart, then help getting “free insurance.” I just had to hand over my name and address, to “confirm you’re eligible,” one scammer said. These are prototypical phone scam scripts.

In a recent experimental study, researchers posing as employees of a fictious government agency convinced more than 16 percent of older adult participants to hand over personal information, including their Social Security numbers. In another experiment, with college students, more than a third of participants gave out personally identifying information to scammers.

Highly unusual about the flyer in my hands, however, was that a very real government agency had given it to me.

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35 of Ayn Rand’s Most Insightful Quotes on Rights, Individualism, and Government

Alisa Rosenbaum was one of the most controversial writers in America’s history. Why, then, have few people heard of her? Because both people’s plaudits and their intemperate attacks have been aimed at the new name she adopted after leaving Russia for America—Ayn Rand. 

Her influence is beyond question. She sold more than 30 million books, and decades after her 1982 death, hundreds of thousands more sell each year. Atlas Shrugged has been ranked behind only the Bible as a book that influenced readers’ lives.

Some are devoted enough that Randian has become a descriptive term. Others use her name only to disparage opponents. Still others disagree with some of her ideas (e.g., while Rand was an often-strident atheist, capitalism is clearly defensible on Christian principles, and most historical defenses of liberty employed Christian rationales which conflict with Rand’s reasoning), yet find a great deal of insight in her analysis of liberty, rights and government.

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