A new scam targeting U.S. retirees has prompted a warning from the\u00a0Social Security Administration (SSA). It comes as some Texans prepare to receive their monthly benefit payment checks.<\/p>\n
If you get an email regarding your Social Security statement, be on the alert.\u00a0The\u00a0SSA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) says it is seeing “a sharp increase in fraudulent emails,” which could lead people to suffer from\u00a0identity theft or financial loss.<\/p>\n
“Anyone who receives one should delete it immediately and report it,” Michelle\u00a0L. Anderson, Assistant Inspector General for Audit, as First Assistant, said\u00a0in a press release.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These messages ask recipients to click the included link or attachments and are often decorated with logos, colors, or formal language that aim to reflect the government organization. Similar to other scams, they also might pressure the receiver to act immediately or risk facing consequences.<\/p>\n
Official, trustworthy SSA\u00a0notifications only come from the\u00a0email address ending in\u00a0“.gov.” If you see anything else, you are dealing with an imposter. These fraud attempts are timely because the next benefit payment checks<\/a> go out on Wednesday, April 8.<\/p>\n The featured links could install malicious software on your device if clicked, the OIG says. It could also forward you to fake\u00a0websites that are designed to steal personal and financial details. Instead, the OIG is urging retirees to access their Social Security account and information via the official URL ssa.gov\/myaccount<\/a>.<\/p>\n Guidance from the SSA states that if you think you are a scam victim, you should contact your banks and credit card companies to protect your account. It’s also recommended to report the incident to the SSA OIG’s “Report Fraud” website page<\/a>\u00a0and through the FBI\u2019s Internet Crime Complaint Center.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0If you lost money because of the scam, contacting local law\u00a0enforcement is your next task.<\/p>\n Facts to keep in mind are that the SSA and OIG will never “demand immediate payment” from citizens, “send unsolicited attachments or direct download links,” ” threaten legal action, arrest, or benefit suspension because you don\u2019t agree to pay immediately, “ask you to pay with gift cards, prepaid debit cards, wire transfers,\u00a0cryptocurrency, cash, or gold bars,” or “offer to move your money to protect it,” the organization states<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new scam targeting U.S. retirees has prompted a warning from the\u00a0Social Security Administration (SSA). It comes as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,268,85,46,181282,179514,266,267],"class_list":{"0":"post-378538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-mysanews","13":"tag-mysastaff","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}