SSA Direct Deposit Scam Change on My Account Today

[wdk450]

Gang:
I am so concerned and worried about this event for me today, I thought I would put out a warning to all the Heartlander SSA recipients out there.

I have an e-mail in my inbox from SSA.GOV-NO REPLY that looks very genuine, and requires no clicks. It said that my access to the MYSSA.GOV personal website was being ended today at my request. I HAVE MADE NO SUCH REQUEST, AND HAVE NOT POSTED MY SSN ON ANY NON-BANKING WEBSITES.
I got into the MYSSA website and did not see this message listed, but did see one about my direct deposit being rerouted to a bank in Texas, effective January 12th, 2024. THIS IS TOTALLY FRAUDULENT.

I am trying to contact SSA on the phone (1 hour wait time), put a report in with the SSA Inspector General online, and talked to my bank.

If you see any notifications from SSA, I would check the details of your account ASAP.

 

[Dahillbilly]

another scam is going around is invoice from PAYPAL that needs to be paid. Email wasn't even addressed to me but did have my email account.
went to my paypal account & nothing there for invoices.

 

[jerryjay11]

Lots of these going around. I get several a day in my SPAM. I look at the return email address and it doesn't reflect a legitimate address. Just a bunch of numbers or letters which don't reflect the so-called business it is supposed to represent. Such as my account to XXXXX is about to expire or it has expired, or Your Pay-Pal account has been charged, or another mentions my account will be charged $$$ in the next 24 hours, etc. All these have a bogus return email address and reference to a telephone # to call. I just BLOCK all and keep an eye on my related accounts. Never do I click on any links. Don't fall for these Phishing Scams as so many older folks have.

 

[wdk450]

Nothing bogus or phising about this original email from SSA notifying me that my email access to SSA had been ended "at my request". SSA rep I talked to after a 1 hour on hold on the telephone said that most likely someone had been able to use my email address (they probably had the password for that) to get access to my SSA site. Changed my email password, set up a new email account and name, trying to get that linked to my gmail app, going to use that one for just a very limited number of respondents, used the strong password generator in setting up passwords for old and new email accounts.
I called the bank in Texas listed on the SSA page as my new direct deposit destination (used google lookup for phone number), started to talk to the bank employee who answered the phone, said my name and she said "I know him". I called the police in Austin, but they said the jurisdiction was on my California end. Put in a report with the SSA inspector general. Called my local law enforcement, but they said it was a federal case.
Right now SSA phone rep told me that the account is frozen, I couldn't give her 'a new e-mail address to use for it since I didn't have one at that time. I have to phone back (1 hour wait again?) between Jan 2 and Jan 4 to get January 10th deposit redirected back to my bank.
I just noticed something. My 2nd Wednesday "check" for January is on January 10th: Effective date listed for this deposit bank change is January 12th!!! I MAY be OK for January, even if somehow I don't get the routing change made by January 4th, but as it is now, my SSA funds would be going to Texas in February for sure.

Once I get the "MY SSA" site access fixed, I will probably start going into the "My SSA" website at the beginning of the month each month, checking the direct deposit routing, and looking for any other suspicious activity.

 

[JohnDar]

Look into Two Factor log in verification for your financial websites. They send you a code via text or email (I prefer text to my cell phone) AFTER you’ve entered your ID and password.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wdk450]

Its strange that once I was talking to SSA on the phone, they were doing 3 or 4 special security verification questions that I had saved with them previously. I believe that I used the "GOV ID" login instead of my email name login, and I THINK that this had phone text 2 factor verification (I can't remember for sure). I was perplexed that such VITAL CHANGES as changing the SSA login e-mail address and the direct deposit destination bank / account could evidently be done by someone impersonating me WITHOUT answering some of these in depth personal verification questions.

In resetting my GMail password, I was perplexed that it would not allow 2 factor verification as I have a GMail app on my IPhone.