Good or Bad

Registry Expiration: 2026-01-20 11:15:09 UTC

Updated: 2024-11-22 00:05:32 UTC

Created: 2015-01-20 11:15:09 UTC

It's a private company. It may or may not be associated with social security

As with every unknown email, it should be verified .. or opened in an internet cafe after forwarding the mail to a throwaway account

Sounds like a  survey

https://help.alchemer.com/help/survey-t … ther-scams

DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK OR RESPOND.  This is a typical pfishing scam.

If you open, you will be re-directed to a spoofed web site.  This is the typical way to steal your credentials / identity.

Scams involved in SSA and steps to follow when receiving unsolicited emails.

https://www.ssa.gov/fraud/#:~:text=Do%2 … 69%2D0271.

Thank You All! I know there is a Cost-of-Living Increase coming in January, but I am also 99% sure this is a scam. I did not have to sign for anything last year.

Thanx Again,

Roddie in Retirement🕵

10/23/24 @roddiesho.  As @Pablo888 wrote, this is almost undoubtedly a scam, and it would be best to delete it.

If you go to ssa.gov and sign in with your LOGIN.GOV ID, you should see right away whether it's legit or not:  if it is, there will be a reference on the site.

If you haven't set up your LOGIN. GOV account, this would be a good time to do it.

For help with your Social Security account, the Federal Benefits Unit (FBU) at the US Embassy in Lisbon administers services for federal benefit program recipients in all Portuguese-speaking countries, and has special phone hours for Brazil.  You can reach them at fbu.lisbon@ssa.gov.  Include your telephone number, name and date of birth,  and the last four digits of your SSN.

A couple of give aways that I see. First, when sending a notification of document availability, SSA usually states exactly what the document is. Second is bad grammar. "S.S.A Administration dep" is doubly redundant. It's like saying "the department of redundancy department bureau," of which I am a long standing member. Kkkkkk

To simplify: Did you request a document from social security or try to generate one yourself on your online social security account?

If not it's a scam.

@abthree It doesn't look as cool and colorful as the original with the SSA Logo etc., but this is a copy of an authentic e-mail I received from the SSA about a month ago. This one left no doubt. When you mentioned the website I looked it up. I had trouble getting in before, because i had one SSA log-in.gov and another ID.me log-in. One would not let me log-in and the other blocked me with the other log-in. When I went to R.I. and the SSA office, they worked it out and printed out last year's COLA change letter. I have to go looking for passwords now but knowing my last journey I usually don't put much effort into getting into the website unless I have to. It looks like I could try in December.

ssa.gov

From:

subscription.service@subscriptions.ssa.gov

Unsubscribe

To:

***

Sat, Oct 12 at 10:17 PM

social security administration

View Your New Benefit Amount Using Your Personal my Social Security Account

More than 72.5 million Americans will see a 2.5% increase in their Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments in 2025. We will mail cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) notices throughout the month of December to retirement, survivors, and disability beneficiaries, SSI recipients, and representative payees.   

This year, millions of people who receive Social Security Disability and Retirement benefits and do not pay Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) will receive a newly designed and improved COLA notice. The notice is now on one page, providing exact dates and dollar amounts of your new benefit and any deductions, making it easier to find what you need. Watch our video to learn more about our redesigned COLA notice.

Want to know your new benefit amount as soon as possible? Starting in early December, you may be able to securely view and save your Social Security COLA notice online via the Message Center inside my Social Security. Most people should be able to get an online COLA notice. Benefit amounts will not be available before December.

Many of our notices – like the COLA notice and our popular 1099 and 1042 benefit statements – are available online. You can choose to get available notices online instead of in the mail and receive email or text alerts under “Message Center Preferences.” This means not needing to wait for them to arrive in the mail or getting the notice lost or misplaced.   

Additionally, many of our forms – such as those related to overpayments or that need to accompany disability applications – are available online and no longer require wet signatures. This makes it easier and quicker for us to request and customers to submit various types of evidence and documents.

Sign In to Your Account

Beware the phishing scammers. They are tricky. I was in the airport on my way to Brazil when l received a text message supposedly from the Social Security Administration alerting me that my account had been hacked. It included a phone number in the form of a clickable hot link. The number was indeed the number of the SSA but l suspected a scam and it was. I did not click the link.

l just logged onto my account and there were no alerts. Be very careful about hot links in texts or emails.

@KenAquarius I think we could make massive amounts of money selling t-shirts that say

"Don't Click the Link"

Roddie in Retirement🕵

@KenAquarius I think we could make massive amounts of money selling t-shirts that say
"Don't Click the Link"
Roddie in Retirement🕵 - @roddiesho

You could make a lot more by sending links 😎

@KenAquarius I think we could make massive amounts of money selling t-shirts that say
"Don't Click the Link"
Roddie in Retirement🕵 - @roddiesho

Hey Roddie,  why don't you create a youtube video about the dangers of phishing?  You have all the material to publish and you have the recording studio....

I would love to see this on youtube as a general warning to others....

Just my $0.02 worth.  BTW is there a similar expression in Portuguese?

@roddiesho, I just discovered a new thing a few days ago...

If you use the chrome browser to open your gmail account, by just hovering your mouse over the sender of the email message in the inbox and keeping the mouse icon stationary for about a couple of seconds, the sender email address will appear. 

It appears th/!\ I AM A STUPID SPAMMER /!\ web renderer reports the sender email address from the email message header without opening the message itself.

After you know who has sent you the email, you can then decide whether to open, report as spam, or trash the email without even opening it.

@Pablo888 Thanx! Back in my leaner days, I used to work from home for Nike, Consumer Cellular, Victorias Secret, SBA, Turbo Tax and a whole lot more. Each time we had to take training in that area.

I was actually just looking for the reactions from the Expat.Com community. That e-mail is unopened and long gone.

Roddie in Retirement🕵

@Pablo888 Thanx, Is there not one already? Unfortunately, my channel in development is so much work I only have time to eat and take care of SIMBA....and of course my wife.  I am a member of AARP, mostly because I wouldn't mind doing a Seniors Podcast in the future, but it does not seem like there is any connection with talking to other Seniors through AARP.

I do have a colleague with a YouTube channel "Silver and Solo" that it would be perfect for. She just did a great episode on what happens to your social media, On-Line Information when you pass. She is very informative when she is not nagging you to start a YouTube channel.

Roddie in Retirment. 👸

@KenAquarius One sure way of

Roddie in Retirement🕵

@KenAquarius Sometimes you know just when to delete. I received phishing notices about closing my account from Chase Bank, even though I do not have an account with them. 😉