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A couple questions. Is not an ATM card a debit card? Perhaps you use your debit card only for ATM withdrawals. On top of that. Good idea to have your credit frozen. But that has nothing to do with diverting your SS check to a different account by a scammer. According to the story above if a scammer can gain access to your SS account online they can change the bank direct deposit info to wherever they want. It has nothing to do with whether your credit is locked or not. Whoever is on the new account is not locked and is not connected to you. All these security measures are only as good as your weakest link. And that appears to be the social security administration. Now if the name on the bank account has to match your name that makes a difference. And I think that depends on the bank. I don't believe all banks require that.
you can tell the bank that you only want a ATM card, no debit card.
The Social Security website appears to be the weak link. Solution: turn off access to the online account, and do any business needed in person. This is annoying, but you will sleep better.
If you do that, freeze your credit also, and use a physical key, like yubikey, to access your online financial accounts. Currently I know of 3 accepting yubikey: Bank of America, KeyBank and Vanguard.
Last edited by lpc123; 03-11-2024 at 12:22 PM..
Reason: Add BofA
The Social Security website appears to be the weak link. Solution: turn off access to the online account, and do any business needed in person. This is annoying, but you will sleep better.
If you do that, freeze your credit also, and use a physical key, like yubikey, to access your online financial accounts. Currently I know of 3 accepting yubikey: Bank of America, KeyBank and Vanguard.
Can you provide a link that provides examples of why the SSA.gov website is a "weak link"?
I have used the SSA.gov website for many years, and have never called or visited a local social security office. I signed up online for medicare (age 65) and four years later just before age 69 to start receiving SS benefits. The website is excellent and makes it pretty easy to sign up.
I don't see any big issue with website security on SSA.gov. You need to have all of your ID information in order before attempting to sign up as a user - it is probably the hardest part related to online access to SSA.gov. Once you have set up access, every user session is a two step login process. First with your user ID and password, then via a security code to your email or mobile phone that is registered with SSA.gov. It is not a trivial matter for someone to hack into.
Too many post without reading the article linked in the original post. Here is what it says -
"“Fraudsters were able to obtain sufficient information about a true beneficiary to convince the Social Security Administration that they were that beneficiary,” said Jeffrey Brown, a deputy assistant inspector general at the Office of the Inspector General, who analyzed the issue in 2019. “Once they were in the front door, they were able to change their direct deposits.”
I don't believe the website is the weak link. I think the fraudsters are calling and getting access to the account by providing all the right information to SSA. 2FA should stop that but perhaps it has not been set up by the affected beneficiaries. Of course, 2FA with phone is not as secure as hardware security such as yubikey.
how rediculous in this day and age is it that the instructions when you write a check for taxes to the IRS ,tell you to put your social security number on the check
I believe you can receive your monthly amount on some type of a card, visa maybe. There might be a way to block any other avenue
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