Keeping our Social Security benefit safe is no joke. The United States Social Security Benefit Administration warns that every precaution is too little in this regard and that we should always put our safety and our money first.
If we compromise our finances, we will have problems in the future. For that reason, the Social Security Administration is launching a very serious announcement in which it warns that if we are not careful we will be involved in a great series of problems.
Regardless of whether we’ve had problems before or not, protecting ourselves is critical to not losing our Social Security check. And we are not talking about the Administration taking away our payment because we fail to meet the requirements.
This time we are talking about a whole series of scams that can make our Social Security check disappear month after month. And this is something we should avoid at all times, as it would not be pleasant to find ourselves in this kind of situation.
HOW TO AVOID SOCIAL SECURITY CHECK SCAMS?
There are many ways Social Security scams work. The scammers try to use different strategies so that we can fall into the trap. And once we have fallen into the trap, it is very difficult to go back to the previous situation.
In order to identify the scammers there are several elements to take into account. According to Social Security’s own website, there are different patterns that scammers follow:
- Pretending to be from an agency or organization known to the beneficiary in order to gain trust.
- Claiming there is a problem with Social Security or that there is an award.
- Putting pressure on the beneficiary so that he or she does not have time to think and acts immediately.
- Requesting payment in a specific form.
Similarly, there is a list of actions that the SSA will never take. So if you see someone coming at you directly doing any of the following you should run away and report it:
- Threaten to arrest you or take legal action because you don’t agree to pay money immediately.
- Suspending your Social Security number.
- Claiming that you need personal information or a payment to trigger a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) or other benefit increase.
- Asking you to pay with gift cards, prepaid debit cards, wire transfers, cryptocurrency or by sending cash in the mail.
- Offering to move your money to a “protected” bank account.
- Send you direct messages on social media.
So report if you find yourself in a similar situation. Reporting is very easy and you can do it through the official Social Security website. Always avoid all kinds of scams should be in our mind, and is that we will always find bad people who will try to steal what is ours.