Social Security Scams: How to Spot and Report Them

How can I tell if a call, email, letter, or text claiming to be from Social Security is a scam, and how do I report it?

Updated September 2026

The four signs every scam shares

Scammers routinely impersonate the Social Security Administration and its Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to steal money or personal information, reaching people by phone, text, email, physical mail, and social media. SSA's own published guidance breaks every version of this down to the same four-part pattern: the scammer pretends to be from an agency you trust, claims there's a problem or a prize, pressures you to act immediately, and tells you to pay in a specific way. Once you recognize that pattern, the channel it arrives through matters less than the behavior itself.

Phone scams: fake transfers, spoofed caller ID, and threats

Phone scams are the version SSA's OIG hears about most. A caller may spoof SSA's real number, or even a local police department's, on your caller ID; use the real name of an actual SSA employee; or claim your Social Security number has been suspended and needs to be "reactivated." SSA issued a fraud alert in July 2026 specifically warning that a caller who offers to transfer you directly to SSA or its OIG is lying — no legitimate company or government office can transfer a call straight into either one. Threats of arrest, a frozen bank account, or a demand to pay by gift card, wire transfer, cryptocurrency, prepaid debit card, or mailed cash are all signs of a scam; SSA will never ask for any of it over the phone.

Email, text, and mail scams

Email and text scams have grown just as fast. In February 2026, SSA's OIG warned of a sharp increase in fake emails claiming a new Social Security statement is ready to download, built to look official right down to the logo and layout — clicking the link can install malware or lead to a fake sign-in page designed to steal your account credentials. A genuine SSA email always comes from an address ending in ".gov"; to check a real statement, type ssa.gov/myaccount directly into your browser instead of clicking a link in any message. The same applies to letters and social media messages claiming to be from SSA: none of them will ever ask you to pay by gift card, cryptocurrency, wire transfer, or mailed cash, no matter how official they look.

How to verify a real SSA contact

The safest way to check whether a contact is real is to use a phone number or website you already know, never one the message itself supplies. Call the National 800 Number at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778), Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time, or sign in to your own mySocial Security account at ssa.gov/myaccount to see your actual benefit and payment status. You can also visit your local Social Security field office in person — use the location search on this site to find its address and phone number — and ask a representative to confirm whether what you received was legitimate.

Reporting a scam

Once you've spotted an attempt, the response is simple: stop talking, don't click anything, and don't call back using a number the message provided. Report it to SSA's Office of the Inspector General at oig.ssa.gov/report, which uses these reports to track scam trends and refer cases for investigation. You can also file a report with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov or the Federal Trade Commission at ftc.gov; the FTC offers phone assistance in multiple languages at 1-877-382-4357 (press 3 for an interpreter).

If you already paid or shared information

Sending money or sharing personal information with a scammer is recoverable, and it isn't something to be embarrassed about — criminal behavior is not your fault. Stop all contact with the scammer and block their number or email address. If you paid by gift card, wire transfer, or bank transfer, contact that company or your bank right away; they may still be able to freeze or reverse it. Notify the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to place a fraud alert on your credit report, and visit identitytheft.gov for a personalized recovery plan. Signing in to your own mySocial Security account also helps going forward: SSA will alert you immediately if anyone tries to change your address or direct deposit information without your knowledge.

If you spot a scam, do this

1. 1 Stop talking, and don't click any link or open any attachment
2. 2 Hang up or don't reply — never call back using a number the message gave you
3. 3 Contact SSA yourself at 1-800-772-1213 or ssa.gov/myaccount to confirm
4. 4 Report it at oig.ssa.gov/report