The effort to verify that a communication was legitimate.

 

As most of my readers know, I am of that age where I can start collecting Social Security benefits.  However, the path between applying for Social Security and collecting one's first benefits is fraught with risk.  In my case, it was verifying that a phone call and email came from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and nt from a scammer.

While I was on my recent Bermuda Cruise, I received both a phone call and an email from a person claiming to be from SSA, saying that I should call his office before December 7th in regard to my benefits.  Well, something seemed fishy, but I couldn't put a handle on it.  So I decided to wait until I returned from the cruise to start looking at things.

When I returned from my cruise, I decided to try and find out whether the communications I had received were legitimate.  First, I decided to check communications on the ssa.gov secure website, but I found nothing.  This didn't give me a good feeling.  Next, I looked at the email to see if the sender's address was spoofed in some way - and there was no evidence of whether this came from SSA or not, as the sender had a "do not reply" return address.  Things were not looking good to say the least.  But something said that I had to do more research.

A few days later, I decided to call the number I had received, and find out what might be going on.  The announcement on the line said SSA, so I dialed the extension.  A person answered, and wanted my SS number before proceeding any further - something I would not give.  After a minute, the fellow gave me the number of the Peekskill office (which I could verify) to call and verify his number.  The next day, I called a different SSA number (1-800-772-1213) to get information.  Although it took 45 minutes to reach a human, I was finally able to verify that the original communication was legitimate.  What a relief.  Now to contact this fellow, finally knowing he was a legitimate contact.

 

 

PS: I spoke with the man today, and the reason for his call was that I could collect survivor benefits on my late wife's account for 4 months, then switch over to collecting benefits on my account when I'm 66 1/2.  It's a nice way to get an extra $2,700 pre-tax.  It's too bad that I didn't file to collect as a survivor on my late wife's account a year ago.  It'd have been nice to have an extra $10k+ in my bank.  But then, why be greedy?  I'm treating this as one of the last things my late wife can give me.  And, like 27 years ago, I am treating myself to a cruise with this money....