From Newsweek:
More than $100 million is lost each year due to Social Security scams, new figures from the Federal Trade Commission show.
Already in 2023, the FTC has received reports of 164,413 government imposter scams, with social security scams being the most common of all. The Social Security Administration saw 38,852 reports, with a total of $101.58 million lost to government-impersonating fraudsters. ...
Did you see that the O’Malley vote is set for Monday 12/18 around 5:30pm?
ReplyDeleteYeah. Finally we’re getting a Commissioner with intimate knowledge of the agency’s programs and the deep experience necessary to understand how its workers in the field, where most work is done, function on a day to day basis. Wait a minute….
DeleteI’m sort of hopeful, myself. Maybe because the current situation has felt like a disaster. I’m not sure it could get much worse.
DeleteCould the proliferation of such scams be because of the lack of knowledge about the system? I don’t know if the agency is forbidden from advertising their services, or is it because they don’t have the budget?
ReplyDeleteHow can they expect to compete with the private industry that pays for frequent commercials for a price?
We frequently receive calls from people using "medicare" as part of their identifier.
ReplyDeleteDirect deposit fraud remains a major, major problem. Essentially, there are so many cases that the agency just essentially replaces the funds to keep the problem out of the news. Worse, I've had cases where it has happened to some claimants as many as 3-4 times. Very few people are ever caught, so there is no disincentive for the fraudsters to not continue doing what they are doing - it is simply easy money (easier than earned income tax fraud, if you can believe it).
ReplyDeleteThe worst part is that you can document the records all you want about fraudulent attempts to change addresses and direct deposit, and yet there are still some moronic SSA employees that will ignore direct deposit fraud blocks and accompanying fraud messages and just change addresses/direct deposit willy-nilly despite the fact that such changes on such records are supposed to be done only in office with ID.
Personally, I think the agency should require a 2 pin process (one of which is a management pin) to change any type of direct deposit and/or address data on a record with a fraud block. They should also be required to administratively investigate and formally reprimand any SSA employee that changes address/direct deposit via phone on a record containing a direct deposit fraud block that results in a financial loss to the agency. I suspect that this would result a significant decrease in the number of these types of fraud cases.
Of course, neither of those things will happen until pigs gain the ability to fly....
…neither fraud block currently available to claimants bars an employee from changing direct deposit over the phone with said claims. It blocks only online/automated phone services.
Deleteanon@9:44pm,
ReplyDeleteIt should when there are special messages all over the records saying the person has been a multi-time direct deposit fraud victim and that changes should only be made in office. Sometimes, someone has to show a little intelligence.
Apparently, it is in frighteningly very short supply in some offices.
I have a case right now with an associated MDW documenting over 50 attempts to change MBR data over and over and over again. The scammers have managed to do it three times, despite the special message fields of the MBR being FULL in attempts to keep employees from doing it.
Granted, a lot of employees didn't do it. However, some did, and that is a problem.
Like the idiots splitting SSI overpayments or the others not following N20 policy, the agency NEEDS to do something about it. And, the something needs to involve forcing a second pin authorization in these cases.
Of course, management in most offices doesn't have to deal with the disruption of these cases so they don't consider it a problem. They only care that it doesn't end up in the news.