This is the best summary I could come up with:

Social Security-related scams, overall, are pervasive — fraudsters pose as employees to try to extract both money and valuable identifying details from people in a variety of evolving schemes.

But this particular fraud — where criminals use stolen personal information to break into online Social Security accounts or create new ones, and divert benefits elsewhere — has plagued people for a more than a decade.

Once fraudsters gain access to an individual’s online Social Security account, they can change a beneficiary’s address and direct deposit information, or request replacement cards.

The Social Security Administration sends notices to beneficiaries through the mail asking them to contact the agency if they didn’t authorize a recent change to their direct deposit information, which has thwarted millions of dollars in benefits from being diverted and lost, O.I.G.

and alerted her state and federal representatives — once spent two and a half hours on hold with the Social Security Administration before connecting with a regional case worker.

If your phone’s caller identification says “Social Security Administration,” don’t trust it — the number may be spoofed and the agency only calls beneficiaries in limited situations.

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