WARNING: Scam Social Security Emails
This may be a bit shorter in length than my usual article (hold your applause please) but something hit my in-box today that seriously threatens to scam a whole lot of people, so I thought it important to get the word out. It was an email purporting to be from the Social Security Administration with a subject line reading "Your 2026 SSI Statement is ready (SSI) Statement."
Folks, if you get this email, delete it immediately! It is a total scam designed to steal your information.
The email is sinister to be sure, but impressive in its presentation, complete with the official logo of the Social Security Administration (SSA). It’s cleverly enough designed to fool the most savvy of individuals, including financial advisors like myself. But there are some dead giveaways that scream illegitimacy.
First is the statement right at the top that says "Action Required" and "Your 2026 SSI Statement is ready. This secured document must be downloaded and opened on a PC or desktop computer. Mobile and tablet access is not supported."
Did you catch that? It said it "must" be downloaded and opened on a PC or computer? That’s a dead giveaway. The scammers are hoping to catch you unaware and get you to download a malicious file to your device that they can then use to steal your vital information and/or demand a ransom. Don’t fall for it!
Other giveaways include the address from which the email came. Suffice it to say it did NOT come from an email address ending in SSA.gov, which it would have if it was legitimate.
Also, it requests that you click on a link to download a "secure statement". Sounds protective, right? Except that if you hover over the link, you will see that it goes to a "zip" file, i.e., one ending in ".zip". If you click on a zip file, it will download whatever files are in that umbrella zip folder, which undoubtedly will be malicious.
You might ask, how do I know this? I know it because the SSA as well as other legitimate government agencies such as the IRS will never send files in such manner. Rather, accessing information from SSA will always involve going to their secure ".gov" site, accessing your personal online account (assuming you have set one up) and downloading the document from there.
Long story short, never trust an unsolicited email that comes from any link or address other than a verified secure address, and never click on an embedded link without first verifying its source. To do so risks catastrophic identity theft and financial loss!
