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A call about your Social Security number: how to tell it is a scam

Updated November 11, 20264 min read7 official sources

Short answer

It is a scam if the caller says your Social Security number is suspended or compromised, threatens arrest, tells you to move your money, or wants gift cards, crypto, a wire or cash. Real SSA employees never do any of that. Hang up and call Social Security yourself at 1-800-772-1213.

The script

Social Security is the federal agency scammers impersonate most, and the FTC keeps finding SSA scams to be the top reported government imposter scam. The calls follow a pattern the SSA's Inspector General sums up as four Ps: they pretend to be a trusted agency, claim a problem or a prize, pressure you to act now, and demand payment by gift card, crypto, wire, gold bars or cash by mail.

A version spreading in 2026 starts with someone else:

  1. A caller says they are from a retailer, your bank or another agency, about a suspicious purchase or fraud on your account.
  2. When you say it was not you, they “transfer” you to someone from SSA or its Inspector General.
  3. That person says your Social Security number was compromised, used in identity theft or linked to a crime.

The SSA Inspector General is blunt about it: companies and other agencies cannot transfer your call to SSA or its Inspector General, so a call that does is a scam, every time. Callers may also use the names of real SSA employees and send pictures of fake badges.

Older people are not the only targets. Between April and June 2026, 451 people under 50 reported losses to SSA impersonators to the Inspector General, against 385 aged 50 and older.

What Social Security will never do

Real SSA and SSA Inspector General employees will never:

  • Contact you out of the blue to ask for personal information or bank account details.
  • Threaten to suspend your Social Security number or seize your bank account.
  • Tell you to transfer or move your money to protect it.
  • Demand payment by gift card, gold, prepaid debit card, payment app, cryptocurrency, wire transfer or cash.
  • Ask you to keep the call secret.
  • Send photos of badges or credentials to prove who they are.

How the real SSA contacts you

  • If you owe money to Social Security, it mails you a letter with payment options and appeal rights.
  • You can check your earnings record and benefits yourself in your my Social Security account at ssa.gov/myaccount.
  • To check a call, hang up and call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213, a number you looked up yourself. Do not press any keys to be “transferred”, and do not trust caller ID: scammers spoof real government numbers.

Where to report it

  • Social Security scams: the SSA Inspector General at oig.ssa.gov/report, or its fraud hotline at 1-800-269-0271 (10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern, Monday to Friday).
  • Also the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

If you already paid or gave your Social Security number, see the steps by payment method in is this number a scam?

Check the number that called you

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Official sources (7)Show