7/30/2019 Social Security Fraud Alert

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*** Socia l Secu r i ty Fr a u d Aler t ***Decem ber 3 , 20 12

Within the last week or so, Social Security has become aware of nationwide fraud problem associatedwith its automatic deposits of SS payments into Social Security recipient bank accounts. Remember,online deposit of payments is a mandated action by March of 2013.

Th e p r o b le m : automatic payments get switched to different accounts. Yes - your money does not getcredited to you - it goes to someone else. Someone has changed your banking information in the SSdatabase.

W h o d o e s t h i s? Banks can online modify SS account deposits without recipient notification. I didn'tknow that. This is the root problem.

H o w w i d e s p r e a d i s t h i s p r o b l e m ? Nationwide

H o w d o y o u s o l ve t h i s p r o b l e m ?

1. Document everything concerned with your online SS account from this point onward. Keep a

detailed and accurate journal of everything I discuss below.

2. Go to y o u r lo ca l SS o ff ic e imm ed ia te ly. Bring ID and account information, including both thebad account number as well as the proper bank account number. Ask to have your account blocked forfuture online changes. Ask that a duplicate/replacement payment be made to you immediately (3-5days). Ask to have an OIG investigation initiated and request that OIG contact you with the results oftheir investigation. This may take several weeks (there is a big backlog). Ask to have your correct

banking direct deposit information inserted into your SS account immediately (1-2 days). This wholevisit will take about 45 minutes (minimum) at the SS window, so plan on it taking a while.

3. G e t a l l t h r e e cr e d i t b u r e a u r e p o r t s online or have them be sent to you to see if there have beenany credit fraud problems in addition to the SS fraud issue. If there have been credit charges made to

your SS number, file a local police report with details of the problems immediately, and notify all threecredit bureaus of the problem.

4. If there are no bogus charges against any of your credit accounts (and this is, therefore, just an SSfraud problem), then the local police may not be interested, or they may not be able to help you. To thelocal police, this appears to be solely a federal issue, and they know OIG will be doing the officialinvestigation. Having said that, your state Attorney General may want you to file a report with them.Notify all three credit agencies of the problem immediately.

5. If you find there ARE bogus charges on your credit report, and you can show your Social Securitynumber has been stolen or compromised, you should immediately file for a new Social Securitynumber. There are several hoops that you will have to go through to get a new SS number, and goodrecord keeping and evidence of the crimes will help facilitate this process. Notify all three credit

agencies of the problem immediately.

At a minimum, and even if there is no problem with your SS account, I would suggest that you go toyour local SS office early in the morning and ask to h a v e yo u r o n l i n e a c co u n t b l o ck e d fromanyone making any online changes to your banking information. Bring valid ID and a blank check orother banking information with you when you go, just in case they want to verify the existing bankinginformation.

As I mentioned, this appears to be a brand new problem, so I have no idea what additionalinformation will be helpful. Take care of this problem this week. It's important.