Social Security Administration Offering Online Registrations

The Social Security Administration has opened up a digital registration database which it says will protect legitimate Social Security recipients from being swindled out of their benefits by identity thieves.

According to the administration, the new online service allows people who are still working but contributing to Social Security to keep track of their earnings, verify their earnings each year, and get an estimate on their future benefits. Those currently receiving Social Security Checks can get a letter with proof of benefits, enable direct deposit, get replacement Medicare cards, and more.

Furthermore, the new system will prevent anyone else who has somehow acquired your Social Security number to pretend to be you in order to get your benefits. As part of the account creation process, the website will ask you specific questions about your financial history that only you would know to ensure that you are actually you.

You can then request additional security measures be implemented on your account, like needing to enter the exact amount of Social Security money you receive each month as a second password.

The Social Security Administration is also alerting citizens to “phishing” attacks made by criminals who pretend to be the administration in order to trick you into giving them your personal info. The administration say that they will only ever send e-mails from a .gov address and links in their e-mails will only ever go to .gov websites. Any suspicious e-mails should be ignored and forwarded to phishing-report@us-cert.gov.