The Office of the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration has warned that several thousand people a year, including in Hawaii, have been scammed out of their monthly Social Security benefit checks. Since most people use direct deposit of their checks, they may not even realize it has happened until they run out of money.
What fraudsters do is open a fake bank account and divert your deposit into their account.
They do this by obtaining information from about your Social Security by pretending to be calling from a bank or your doctor’s office. Or, they may change a bank account number, which officials say is easier than it should be.
Check your bank records regularly, and never give out your Social Security number is someone calls you. To learn more:
