The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning people about a new scam in which people are receiving phone calls from scammers posing as employees of the Social Security Administration (SSA). In these phone calls the scammer informs the targeted victim that there has been a computer problem and it is necessary to confirm the person’s Social Security number. This is just a scam. The SSA will never be calling you to confirm your Social Security number, but a scammer will call you in order to lure you into providing it to him or her who will then use it to make you a victim of identity theft.
On another tact, The Social Security Administration (SSA) has a helpful online service called My Social Security Account which allows you to set up a personal online account with the SSA that enables you to view your earnings history and estimates of benefits as well as manage your benefits online including changing your address or starting or changing direct electronic deposits of your check into a bank account you may designate.  This is a tremendously convenient service, but it also provides a great opportunity for scammers who have been setting up My Social Security Accounts on behalf of seniors who have not already set up such accounts for themselves.  The scammers then make changes to the victim’s account by directing their benefits checks to be sent to bank accounts controlled by the scammers.  Even though  the Social Security Administration requires verification of personal information by asking questions that only the Social Security recipient should know as part of the process for opening a My Social Security Account, too often this information is available to a determined identity thief who is thereby able to fraudulently open an account in the name of their intended victim.
In order to improve the security of the accounts, the SSA is now requiring people to use dual factor authentication to access their accounts once they have been set up.   At the user’s option, the dual factor authentication is done by the SSA sending a one time code either to the user’s email or cell phone. Using an email address for dual factor authentication may prove to be problematic because it is not particularly difficult for a sophisticated hacker to gain access to someone’s email account.
TIPS
Just as the best defense against income tax identity theft is to file your income tax return before an identity thief attempts does so in your name, so the best defense against the fraudulent setting up of a My Social Security Account in your name is for you to set one up first and protect its safety with a strong username and password. For information about signing up for a My Social Security Account go to https://ssa.gov/myaccount/
You can also require that any changes to the bank account into which your check is electronically deposited only be done at a Social Security branch office and not on your online account.