Political Quotes

“I rise to recognize today, March 5, as National ``Slam the Scam'' Day. I first want to thank my colleague from Arizona, Senator Sinema, for working with me on a Senate resolution designating today as National ``Slam the Scam'' Day. This resolution will help raise awareness of Government imposter scams with a single message: hang up and tell someone. In Government imposter scams, criminals claim to be from Government agencies, such as the Social Security Administration, and call Americans demanding payment or personal information. These scams look real because they often begin with an unsolicited robocall using a spoofed caller ID, showing the name of the Government agency they are pretending to be. In reality, the Government would never call to threaten you or demand payment using gift cards, cash, wire transfers, or internet cryptocurrency. Government imposter scams have been the number one complaint reported to the Aging Committee's Fraud Hotline since its creation in 2013. Over the last two years, nearly 2,000 Maine consumers reported Government imposter scams to the Federal Trade Commission, with total losses of more than $700,000. Last year, the top reported scam to the Fraud Hotline, which the Aging Committee featured in our first hearing of the year, was the Social Security Administration impersonation scam. Americans reported losing nearly $38 million to this scam in 2019 alone, according to the Federal Trade Commission.…”