What You Can Do To Protect Your Personal Information | SSA (2024)

Note: The Social Security Administration is providing the below information as a public service following reports of a data breach that is unrelated to SSA’s internal systems and data, neither of which has been compromised.

With various reports of data breaches involving Social Security numbers in the media, we’d like to remind you about the importance of protecting your personal information. Someone illegally using your Social Security number (SSN) and possibly assuming your identity can cause many problems.

What to do if you suspect your Social Security number has been stolen

Identity thieves can use your SSN and other personal information to apply for loans and credit cards and open cellphone and utility accounts in your name. If you believe your information has been stolen and you may be a victim of identity theft, you can:

• Visit IdentityTheft.gov to make a report and get a recovery plan. IdentityTheft.gov is a one-stop resource managed by the Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency. Or you can call 1-877-IDTHEFT (1-877-438-4338).
• File a police report and keep a copy for your records in case problems arise in the future.
• File an online report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov. Its mission is to receive, develop, and refer cybercrime complaints to law enforcement and regulatory agencies.
• Notify 1 of the 3 major credit bureaus and consider adding a credit freeze, fraud alert, or both to your credit report. The company you call is required to contact the others.
  • Equifax at 1-800-525-6285.
  • Experian at 1-888-397-3742.
  • TransUnion at 1-800-680-7289.
• Regularly check your credit report for anything unusual. Free credit reports are available online at AnnualCreditReport.com.
• Contact the IRS to prevent someone else from using your Social Security number to file a tax return to receive your refund. Visit Identity Theft Central or call 1-800-908-4490.

To learn more, read our blog, Protect Yourself from Identity Thieves, and our Identity Theft and Your Social Security Number publication.

What else can you do to protect yourself

Create or sign in to your personal my Social Security account to check for any suspicious activity. If you have not yet applied for benefits:

• You should not find any benefit payment amounts, and you should be able to access your Social Security Statement and view future benefit estimates.
• Review your Statement to verify the accuracy of the earnings posted to your record to make sure no one else is using your Social Security number to work.

If you receive benefits, you can add blocks to your personal my Social Security account:

• The eServices block prevents anyone, including you, from viewing or changing your personal information online.
• The Direct Deposit Fraud Prevention block prevents anyone, including you, from enrolling in direct deposit or changing your address or direct deposit information throughmy Social Security or a financial institution (via auto-enrollment).

You’ll need to contact us to make changes or remove the blocks.

Other ways to safeguard your information

• Don’t carry your Social Security card with you. Keep it at home in a safe place. Be careful about who you give your number to.
• Change your passwords regularly and use a unique password for each account to prevent hackers from accessing multiple accounts if one password is stolen.
• Add an extra layer of security to your online accounts by using multi-factor authentication, which is a sign-in process that requires a password plus additional information.
• Be wary of scammers pretending to be Social Security employees. If you get a suspicious call, text, or email about a problem with your Social Security number or account, ignore it, hang up, and don’t respond! To report the scam and to learn more, visit Protect Yourself From Scams.

You’ll find more tips at our Fraud Prevention and Reporting page.

Please share this important information with your friends and family and post it on social media.

Tags: data privacy, fraud, scams, Social Security card

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1. Peter

   August 25, 2024 8:25PM

   From this Aug 21, 2024 article by Dawn Bystry, under What else can you do to protect yourself
   She states:
   If you receive benefits, you can add blocks to your personal my Social Security account:
   The eServices block prevents anyone, including you, from viewing or changing your personal information online.
   The Direct Deposit Fraud Prevention block prevents anyone, including you, from enrolling in direct deposit or changing your address or direct deposit information through my Social Security or a financial institution (via auto-enrollment).

   Which sounds good, but no amount of searching reveals how I can place these blocks on my account!

   It does state:

   You’ll need to contact us to make changes or remove the blocks.

   So presumably I’ll need to call the SSA 800 number or visit the local SSA office?

   Reply

   • APRIL S.

     August 27, 2024 9:26PM

     Hartsville South Carolina and Lamar South Carolina and Florence South Carolina and Darlington South Carolina and United States and Child Tax Credit Monthly check CTC and 2,000 and 3,000 age15 and age13 and 4th stimulus check and 1,700.00 and SSA and SSDI and SSI and 1,400.00 and P-EBT K-12 and 391.00 and 🇺🇸 🙄

     Reply

2. Siempo

   August 24, 2024 2:23PM

   Like so many others, your process is useless. My PI has been exposed and sold to Dark Web 4 times in the last 2 years. You allow sale of our data as if we were slaves to be bartered?

   Reply

3. Quacy M.

   August 24, 2024 7:41AM

   The social security office or US Social Security Administration at location 1871 Rockaway Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11236 and phone number 1- 800 772-1213 or 1-866-667-7342 want me to do illegal prostitution with them for my ssi money is why they gave me the worker the Asian worker to ask about my payee money that I need another instead of giving it to me the sole owner. I don’t need a representative

   Reply

   • Quacy M.

     August 25, 2024 1:19AM

     this is one of my links that can help that is connect with us or external websites

     https://youtu.be/JW3oKZUzC5M?si=HqugNe95x-rmiqpc

     Reply

     • APRIL S.

       August 27, 2024 9:27PM

       South carolina and United States and SSA and SSDI and SSI and 1,400.00 and 4th stimulus check and 1,700.00

       Reply

4. John D.

   August 23, 2024 12:12PM

   Why is the onus on ‘We the People’ to fix government mishaps? Private companies should NEVER have been allowed to store ANY critical private data in the first place! This is a complete failure. What are YOU doing to course correct? /We/ didn’t /get/ our data stolen, /YOU/ failed to provide /protection/ from thieving. What is being done about it?

   Reply

5. Mary R.

   August 22, 2024 11:14AM

   Good Morning, My question is Is there a way I can add a pin or password to my number or maybe put a freeze on my SS number????

   Reply

   • Creativity

     August 22, 2024 5:40PM

     I like this question.

     Reply

   • Jar o.

     August 26, 2024 6:43AM

     You can lock and unlock your social security number by creating an account at https://myeverify.uscis.gov/

     Make sure the first thing you do is check to make sure that website actually has https on it as well as the little lock at the top and the word .gov to show it is an actual government website.

     Once you create the account you can go there to proceed to lock your social security number. This will prevent anyone, including you to get a job with any employer that uses electronic background verification and will also prevent anyone from applying for benefits in your name. Keep in mind that if you go to get another job or apply for benefits you will need to temporarily unlock your social security number to apply.

     Reply

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