Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General has warned retirees three times since November about people impersonating agency staff, and the alert it published in April describes something the earlier two did not. Criminals have started using the real names of serving employees, together with photographs of official identification badges and social media accounts made to look like the agency’s own.
For years the standard advice has been to check who is making contact. The April alert describes criminals who have worked out exactly what that check involves.
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What the three alerts describe
The first, issued in November, concerned an email carrying the subject line “Alert: Social Security Account Issues Detected”. Attached was a document styled to look like official government letterhead, stating that the recipient’s Social Security number would be suspended within 24 hours unless they rang a case number, with criminal prosecution threatened if they did nothing. The number connected to a scammer, or to an automated system claiming to be the inspector general’s office.
February brought a variation rather than a step forward. That alert described emails offering access to a new Social Security statement, with links leading to sites built to collect personal details. “These messages are not from Social Security,” said Michelle Anderson, the office’s acting inspector general, who warned that clicking through could expose people to identity theft and financial loss.
April was the change. Investigators found criminals pairing genuine employee names with copied or invented badge photographs, and running social media accounts that borrow the agency’s name and colours. The office noted that those fake accounts usually have very few followers, one of the few dependable ways to tell them apart. Caller ID is routinely faked as well, so an incoming call can display a real government number.
Does Social Security call people at home?
Sometimes, but rarely without a reason. Staff mainly telephone people who have recently applied for a benefit, who already receive payments and need a record updated, or who asked for a call themselves. Where there is a real problem with someone’s record, the agency’s usual practice is to write first.
Can a Social Security number be suspended?
No. Numbers cannot be suspended, frozen or cancelled, and no official will threaten to do so over the phone. That claim sat at the centre of the November email scam and remains one of the clearest signs of fraud.
| Social Security | A scammer | |
|---|---|---|
| First contact | Writes first if a record needs attention | Calls, texts or emails without warning |
| Payment | Never requested by phone | Wants gift cards, transfers, cryptocurrency or gold |
| Deadline | Normal appeal timescales apply | Demands action within hours |
| Proof of identity | Does not send badge photographs | Offers a badge photo, badge number or staff name |
How much is being lost
The Federal Trade Commission logged more than 330,000 reports of government impersonation in 2025, a rise of a quarter on the previous year, a figure Social Security cited when it ran its annual fraud awareness day in March. Separate FTC figures published in June put losses to people posing as government officials at $920 million for 2025, up from $789 million in 2024.
Older people carry much of that cost. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Centre recorded 201,266 fraud complaints from people aged 60 and over last year, with reported losses of $7.7 billion and an average loss of roughly $38,500 for each victim.
Those totals have climbed every year through a decade of public awareness work, which suggests warnings on their own are doing little to slow the problem down.
What it looks like when it works
Prosecutors in Hawaii announced on 22 July that they had charged Harsh Fojalal Shah, 25, an Indian national, over his role as a courier in a scheme running the same script. The callers in that case posed as US Marshals rather than Social Security staff, but the method matched. They told an elderly woman her identity had been compromised and instructed her to convert her savings into gold for safekeeping.
She handed over nine gold bars worth more than $137,000. Investigators stepped in as the group pressed her for a further $429,000 from her retirement account, arranging a collection using prop gold. Shah arrived to take it, produced a dollar bill as the agreed password, and was arrested after driving evasively through Honolulu. He told investigators he had made around ten similar collections from older people in recent months.
What checks still work
Because the details a caller offers can be copied, the only reliable check is one the recipient begins themselves.
- Put the phone down and ring Social Security on 1-800-772-1213, or the inspector general’s fraud hotline on 1-800-269-0271. Never use a number supplied by the caller.
- Open a my Social Security account at ssa.gov/myaccount, which shows genuine notices and payment records for comparison.
- Treat any attachment or link claiming to come from the agency as suspect. Real information is reachable by typing ssa.gov into a browser.
- Never send gift cards, cryptocurrency, cash or gold to anyone who made contact first.
Suspected fraud can be reported at oig.ssa.gov, or to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
What to do if details have already been handed over
Stop replying to the caller or sender. Tell the bank and ask it to monitor the account. Place a fraud alert with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, which costs nothing and obliges lenders to verify identity before opening credit. Report what happened to the inspector general and the FTC, then file a report with local police, since banks and insurers often ask for one.
Does any of this affect pensioners in Britain?
The same method is already in use here, with different agency names attached. HM Revenue and Customs began recovering Winter Fuel Payments in April from around two million pensioners whose income is above ยฃ35,000, and warned at the time that criminals would use the change as cover.
“Criminals are great pretenders and often use fake letters, emails, calls and texts to impersonate HMRC and trick people into giving them money,” said Myrtle Lloyd, the department’s chief customer officer. HMRC does not contact anyone by text or email asking for repayment or bank details. Suspicious texts can be forwarded to 60599, and emails to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk.
British pension savings face the same weakness. In March the Pensions Regulator, working with City of London Police, alerted more than 35,000 pension professionals to fraudsters who use savers’ genuine personal information to get past scheme security checks, then change bank details or open accounts in the saver’s name. Around ยฃ500,000 was reported lost between 2021 and 2025, with a further ยฃ2.5 million at risk. Fraud reports now go to Report Fraud, which replaced Action Fraud in January.
Both governments have narrowed their advice to a single point. A name, a badge photograph or a callback number can all be produced by whoever is running the scam, so none of them settle anything on their own. Ending the call and ringing back on a number found independently, through GOV.UK or ssa.gov, is the one check that cannot be arranged in advance.
