Beware the New Scam Targeting Social Security Benefits

The Social Security Administration has issued a new fraud advisory -- the fourth so far this year. Here's what you must know about protecting your retirement income.

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The Social Security Administration is warning Americans about a new scam targeting benefits.

It involves the impersonation of Social Security Administration employees. The SSA and its Office of the Inspector General have received complaints from citizens across the country about this scam.

The complaints indicate that the impersonator uses a phone number with a 323 area code. In some cases, the caller says the victim is due a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, that would increase the victim’s Social Security benefits by 1.7 percent.

The impersonator asks victims to verify personal information so they can receive the increase. This information includes:

Name
Date of birth
Social Security number
Parents’ names

An impersonator who gets this information uses it to contact the Social Security Administration and request changes to the victim’s direct deposit information, address and phone number.

Protecting your Social Security benefits

The latest fraud advisory from the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General is the fourth issued by the OIG so far this year. It should go without saying that you must always be vigilant about your financial information, including Social Security information.

Social Security Administration employees do occasionally call citizens for customer-service purposes. But the OIG says that “only in a few limited special situations, usually already known to the citizen,” will employees request personal information by phone.

The office also notes that if you receive a suspicious call from someone claiming to represent the SSA, you can report it by calling 800-269-0271 or visiting oig.ssa.gov/report.

You should always be wary about sharing personally identifiable information like your date of birth or Social Security number as well as financial information. The acting inspector general for the SSA, Gale Stallworth Stone, says of requests for such information: