Acting Inspector General of Social Security Gale Stallworth Stone is warning citizens about ongoing Social Security Administration (SSA) impersonation schemes targeting Americans for the purpose of fraudulently obtaining Social Security numbers.

Reports of suspicious calls from bad actors purporting to be from the SSA are on the rise, OIG said in a new fraud advisory.

In one scheme, an automated recording states the person’s Social Security number (SSN) “has been suspended for suspicion of illegal activity,” and directs the person to contact a phone number immediately to resolve the issue.  The call concludes by stating if the person does not contact the provided phone number, the person’s assets will be frozen until the alleged issue is resolved. 

In another scheme reported to OIC, a caller claims to be from “SSA headquarters” and waits for the person to provide personal information, such as an SSN, address, and date of birth. 

In January, the OIG shared similar identity theft scams being reported from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which warned about an increase in reports of suspicious phone calls from people claiming to be SSA employees. 

According to the FTC, current schemes involve a caller identifying as an SSA employee and claiming an issue exists with the citizen’s online account; the caller claims the citizen can resolve the issue either over the phone or through an imposter SSA website.

SSA employees do occasionally contact citizens by telephone for customer-service purposes. In only a few limited special situations, usually regarding matters already known to the citizen, an SSA employee may request the citizen confirm personal information over the phone, the fraud alert stated. If a person receives a suspicious call from someone alleging to be from SSA, the fraud advisory directs citizens to contact the OIG at 1-800-269-0271 or online via https://oig.ssa.gov/report.

Acting Inspector General Stone warned citizens to be cautious and to avoid providing information such as your SSN or bank account numbers to unknown persons over the phone or internet unless you are certain of who is receiving it.  “Be aware of suspicious calls from unknown sources, and when in doubt, contact the official entity to verify the legitimacy of the call,” Stone said.

According to the alert, if a person has questions about any communication—email, letter, text or phone call—that claims to be from SSA or the OIG, they should contact your local Social Security office, or call Social Security’s toll-free customer service number at 1-800-772-1213, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, to verify its legitimacy.  (Those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can call Social Security’s TTY number at 1-800-325-0778.)

For those who want to be forewarned about possible identity theft, earlier this month Capital One added Social Security number tracking to the new features in its free credit-tracking service, CreditWise, which is available to everyone.  

For folks who want to track their personal information without shelling out a monthly fee, Capital One’s CreditWise features include:

• Social Security number alerts: You’ll get a notification if your Social Security number is used to apply for credit. The alerts also note the names and addresses associated with credit applications linked to your SSN.

• Alerts from Experian and TransUnion: These will notify you about meaningful changes on your credit reports, such as hard inquiries. (Previously, CreditWise users could get these alerts only from TransUnion.)

• Dark web alerts: The so-called “dark web” is a part of the internet that’s not accessible to traditional search engines, where personal information is illegally bought and sold. You’ll get notified if your SSN or email address is found there.