Will Uncle Sam Pay Your Bills? Don’t Fall for It
The scheme, promoted in online videos as well as through emails and phone calls, tells of “secret” government bank accounts
that consumers can tap to pay their bills or make purchases electronically, using their Social Security number as an account number, combined with a Federal Reserve Bank routing number — a number used by the Fed to sort and process payments between banks.
“Any video, text, email, phone call, flier or website
that describes how to pay bills using a Federal Reserve Bank routing number or using an account at the Federal Reserve Bank is a scam,” the warning from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said.
“To our knowledge,” she said, “the consumers who have attempted to make payments using Federal Reserve routing numbers
and their Social Security numbers have not given their information to fraudsters.”
Still, consumers should be wary if they are contacted in any way about the scheme because any scam involving a Social Security number suggests
that one motive may be identity theft, said Lois C. Greisman, associate director of the division of marketing practices at the Federal Trade Commission.
The Atlanta Fed’s statement said, in part, that the Federal Reserve provides banking
services only for banks: “Individuals do not have accounts at the Federal Reserve.”
“It is important for consumers to know that when making online or e-check bill payments,
they cannot use Federal Reserve routing numbers,” the Atlanta Fed added.
The payments have been made to utilities and online merchants that allow customers to pay online using checking account information, Ms. Tate said.
People who have tried to pay bills using the fictitious accounts may be charged penalty fees and late fees from the merchants they were trying to pay.
