Consumer Protection Data Spotlight | April 2019 1 

Growing wave of Social Security imposters overtakes IRS scam

Claiming to be a government authority is a tried and 

true way that scammers trick people into sending 

money. Among the most common government 

imposters have been scammers pretending to be the 

IRS – until now. In the past few months, the FTC’s 

Consumer Sentinel Network database has seen Social 

Security Administration (SSA) imposter reports 

skyrocket while reports of IRS imposters have 

declined sharply. In the shady world of government 

imposters, the SSA scam may be the new IRS scam. 

SSA imposters tell you your Social Security number 

has been suspended because of suspicious activity, or 

because it’s been involved in a crime. They ask you to 

confirm your Social Security number, or they may say 

you need to withdraw money from the bank and to 

store it on gift cards or in other unusual ways for 

“safekeeping.” You may be told your accounts will be 

seized or frozen if you don’t act quickly. 

These scammers often use robocalls to reach people, 

and the message can be hard to ignore. You may be 

told to “press 1” to speak to a government “support 

representative” for help reactivating your Social 

Security number. They also use caller ID spoofing to 

make it look like the Social Security Administration 

really is calling. With such trickery, these scammers 

are good at convincing people to give up their Social 

Security numbers and other personal information. 

As the graphic shows, people reported the IRS scam 

(in blue) in huge numbers for many years, but the new 

SSA scam (in orange) is trending in the same direction 

– with a vengeance. People filed over 76,000 reports

about Social Security imposters in the past 12 months,

with reported losses of $19 million.1

 Compare that to

the $17 million in reported losses to the IRS scam in

its peak year.

2

 About 36,000 reports and $6.7 million

in reported losses are from the past two months alone.

Just 3.4% of people who report the Social Security 

scam tell us they lost money.

3

 Most people we hear 

from are just worried because they believe a scammer 

has their Social Security number. But when people do 

lose money, they lose a lot: the median individual 

reported loss last year was $1,500, four times higher 

than the median individual loss for all frauds.4 All age 

groups are reporting this scam in high numbers, with 

older and younger adults filing loss reports at similar 

rates.

5

 

People report sending money in unconventional ways. 
Most often, people say they gave the scammer the PIN 

numbers on the back of gift cards. Virtual currencies 

like Bitcoin come in a distant second to gift cards: 

people say they withdrew money and fed cash into 

Bitcoin ATMs. With both methods, the scammer gets 

quick cash while staying anonymous, and the money 

people thought they were keeping safe is simply gone.

Here are some tips to deal with these imposters:

• Do not trust caller ID. Scam calls may show 

up on caller ID as the Social Security 

Administration and look like the agency’s real 

number.

• Don’t give the caller your Social Security 

number or other personal information. If 

you already did, visit IdentityTheft.gov/SSA

to find out what steps you can take to protect 

your credit and your identity.

• Check with the real Social Security 

Administration. The SSA will not contact 

you out of the blue. But you can call them 

directly at 1-800-772-1213 to find out if SSA 

is really trying to reach you and why.

• Talk about it. People recognize the IRS scam,

but many are getting caught off guard by these 

new imposters. You can help by telling people 

that the SSA scam is a new version of the IRS 

scam.

Report government imposter scams to the FTC at 

FTC.gov/complaint. To learn more, visit 

ftc.gov/imposters.

1 The FTC was unable to collect reports directly from the public during the government shutdown. Reports collected during that period were provided by Sentinel data 

contributors.

2 From October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016, about 140,000 reports of IRS imposter scams were filed and collectively indicated $17 million of loss.

3 For comparison, 2.8% of IRS scam reports filed from January 2014 through March 2019 indicated a loss. In 2018, 25% of all fraud reports indicated a loss.

4 Median loss calculations are based on reports submitted in 2018 that indicated a monetary loss ($1 - $999,999). The median reported individual loss to all frauds was

$371 in 2018.

5 Age comparison based on the number of Social Security imposter reports that indicated a monetary loss per million population by age. People who said they were 20 –

59 filed loss reports at a rate of 8.9 reports per million people in this age group, while people who said they were 60 and over filed 10.0 loss reports per million people in 

this age group. Population numbers obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Selected Age Groups by

Sex for the United States, States, Counties and Puerto Rico Commonwealth and Municipios (June 2018). Not all reports include usable age information.

Consumer Protection Data Spotlight | April 2019 2

The FTC uses reports from the public to investigate and stop fraud, for consumer education and outreach, and for 

analyses like this. File your fraud report at FTC.gov/complaint. To explore Sentinel data, visit FTC.gov/data.