Inspector General Warns Public About SSA Employee Impersonation Scheme
Posted on
<https://blog.socialsecurity.gov/inspector-general-warns-public-about-ssa-em
ployee-impersonation-scheme/> July 20, 2017 by
<https://blog.socialsecurity.gov/author/andrew-cannarsa/> Andrew Cannarsa,
OIG Communications Director
The Acting Inspector General of Social Security, Gale Stallworth Stone, is
warning citizens about a new Social Security Administration (SSA) employee
impersonation scheme. SSA and its Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
have recently alerted citizens about an
<https://oig.ssa.gov/newsroom/news-releases/march30-advisory> OIG employee
impersonation scheme and a scheme targeting
<https://oig.ssa.gov/newsroom/news-releases/june21-advisory> former clients
of Kentucky disability attorney Eric Conn; the agencies are now receiving
reports from citizens across the country about other phone calls from an
individual posing as an SSA employee. The caller attempts to acquire
personally identifiable information from victims to then edit the victims'
direct deposit, address, and telephone information with SSA.
The reports indicate that the impersonator calls from a telephone number
with a 323 area code. The caller claims to be an SSA employee, and in some
instances, tells the victim that they are due a 1.7 percent cost-of-living
adjustment (COLA) increase of their Social Security benefits. The
impersonator goes on to ask the victim to verify all of their personal
information including their name, date of birth, Social Security number
(SSN), parents' names, etc. to receive the increase. If the impersonator is
successful in acquiring this information, they use it to contact SSA and
request changes to the victim's direct deposit, address, and telephone
information.
SSA employees occasionally contact citizens by telephone for
customer-service purposes, but they will not request sensitive personal
information from a citizen over the phone. If a person receives a similar
suspicious call from someone alleging to be from SSA, citizens may report
that information to the OIG at 1-800-269-0271 or online via
<https://oig.ssa.gov/report> https://oig.ssa.gov/report.
Acting Inspector General Stone continues to warn citizens to be cautious,
and to avoid providing information such as your SSN or bank account numbers
to unknown persons over the phone or internet unless you are certain of who
is receiving it. "You must be very confident that the source is the correct
business party, and your information will be secure after you release it,"
Stone said.
If a person has questions about any communication-email, letter, text or
phone call-that claims to be from SSA or the OIG, please contact your local
Social Security office, or call Social Security's toll-free customer service
number at 1-800-772-1213, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, to verify
its legitimacy. (Those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can call Social
Security's TTY number at 1-800-325-0778.)
SOURCE: Social Security Article at
https://blog.socialsecurity.gov/inspector-general-warns-public-about-ssa-emp
loyee-impersonation-scheme/
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