SSA Employee Impersonation Scams

Over the past several months, the Office of the Inspector General has received a number of reports relating circumstances where individuals have been contacted by someone pretending to be an SSA employee. The caller identifies himself/herself as an SSA employee and may even provide a toll-free number as a point of contact. The caller generally asks for personal identifying information such as:

• Social Security Number
• Date of Birth
• Mother's maiden name
• Bank account information
• Other financial account information

The impersonator may state that "the SSA computers are down" or may refer to enrollment in the Medicare prescription drug program. The intent of the impersonator is to steal your identity and/or funds from your bank accounts.

It is possible that an SSA employee may contact you to follow-up on a previous application for benefits, application for a subsidy for the Medicare Part D program, or to follow-up on business you have initiated with SSA. If you are unsure as to the authenticity of someone who claims to be an SSA employee, please call SSA's toll-free number:

• 1-800-772-1213 to verify the reason for the contact and the person's identity.

If you wish to report a call from someone you suspect is impersonating an SSA employee, please provide the following details to the OIG:

• Caller's alleged name
• Caller's telephone number
• Time and date the call was made
• Information requested by the caller
• Other identifying information or details about the content of the call

Information about the OIG's fraud hotline can be obtained from the Reporting Fraud section of the OIG's website.