To report Social Security fraud, file a report with the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General online at oig.ssa.gov, by phone at 1-800-269-0271, by mail to a Baltimore P.O. box, or by fax. You can file under your name, confidentially, or fully anonymously. The OIG received more than 147,000 fraud allegations in the second half of fiscal year 2025 alone, and the reporting form is designed to handle everything from a tip about a neighbor working while on disability to a formal complaint about a representative payee.1Office of the Inspector General. Semiannual Report to Congress – Fall 2025
The Four Ways to File a Report
The OIG accepts fraud allegations through four channels. Pick the one that fits how much detail you have and how you prefer to communicate.
Online. The fastest option is the OIG’s fraud reporting form at secure.ssa.gov/oig/fraud. The form walks you through several screens and lets you attach supporting documents.2Office of the Inspector General. Report Fraud
Phone. Call the Social Security Fraud Hotline at 1-800-269-0271, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern Time, excluding federal holidays.3Social Security Administration. href=”https://www.ssa.gov/fraud/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Fraud Prevention and Reporting
Mail. Send a written report to Social Security Fraud Hotline, Office of the Inspector General, P.O. Box 17785, Baltimore, Maryland 21235.4Office of the Inspector General. Other Ways to Report Fraud
Fax. Transmit documents to 410-597-0118.4Office of the Inspector General. Other Ways to Report Fraud
Whichever channel you use, save any confirmation or tracking number. The OIG does not send status updates after a report is filed, so that number is your only record.
What to Gather Before You File
A report is only as useful as the facts inside it. Before you start, pull together what you know about the person or business and what you know about the fraud itself.
The online form asks for information about the subject: name and any aliases, Social Security number if you have it, home address and phone numbers, date of birth, sex, race, and state of birth. If you are reporting on behalf of someone else, the form also asks for the victim’s Social Security number and contact details.2Office of the Inspector General. Report Fraud You do not have to fill in every field to submit, but blanks make the allegation harder to verify against SSA records.
The free-text description is where the report lives or dies. Dates matter. “Since approximately March 2024” gives investigators traction that “for a few years” does not. Explain what you saw, when it happened, and how you know. If you have documents, emails, photographs, billing records, or social media posts that show the fraud, upload them. Screenshots of a subject posting travel photos while claiming to be housebound with a disability are the kind of concrete material that moves an allegation from a review queue into an active file. You are not expected to build the case yourself.
Anonymous, Confidential, or Unrestricted
The first thing the online form asks is how you want your identity handled. The choice is real, and it shapes what the OIG can do with your report.2Office of the Inspector General. Report Fraud
Unrestricted means the OIG can share your information as needed during the investigation. Confidential means investigators know who you are but will not disclose your identity to the subject. Anonymous means even the OIG does not know who you are, which protects you completely but also means investigators cannot come back to you for clarification. If you go anonymous, be careful not to include anything in the description that would identify you, such as your own name or your relationship to the suspect.
There is no financial reward for reporting Social Security fraud. The OIG does not run a tipster payment program.
Impersonation Scams Go to a Different Portal
If your problem is someone pretending to be from the SSA rather than someone cheating the benefit system, use the OIG’s separate scam reporting portal at secure.ssa.gov/oig/scam, not the general fraud form. Impersonation scams accounted for more than 27,000 allegations to the OIG in the second half of fiscal year 2025.1Office of the Inspector General. Semiannual Report to Congress – Fall 2025
The pattern is consistent: a caller or emailer claims there is a problem with your Social Security number, pressures you to act immediately, and demands payment through gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency. Real SSA employees will not threaten arrest by phone, offer to move your money to a “protected” account, or demand secrecy.5Social Security Administration. Protect Yourself from Scams The scam portal asks for the date of the incident, how the scammer contacted you, whether you lost money, and whether the scammer asked for your Social Security number or claimed to be from the SSA or OIG. You will create a five-digit security PIN for the report.6Office of Inspector General. Report Scams If you lost money, also report the scam to your local police and contact your bank or payment provider right away.
What Counts as Fraud Worth Reporting
The OIG investigates deliberate attempts to obtain benefits someone is not entitled to or to keep rightful payments from reaching the person owed them. In practice, the reports that come in tend to cluster in a few areas.
False statements on benefit applications are the most common: working while collecting disability, hiding a medical recovery, misrepresenting income, or lying about living arrangements that affect payment amounts.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 408 – Penalties Representative payee misuse is another category. When someone is appointed to manage another person’s benefits, spending that money on themselves instead of the beneficiary is a federal crime. Identity theft and continuing to collect a deceased person’s payments without notifying the SSA also fall squarely under fraud.8Social Security Administration. Fraud Prevention and Reporting
You do not have to be certain a crime occurred. The OIG’s job is to evaluate the allegation. Your job is to describe what you know.
What Happens After You File
Once your report reaches the OIG, staff log and review the allegation and decide what to do next. Options include gathering more information, opening a formal case, referring the matter to the SSA or another federal agency, or closing the allegation. Some allegations trigger broader audits.9Office of the Inspector General. FAQ
You will not be told which of these happened. The OIG does not share the action it took on a specific allegation, and federal regulations prevent disclosing information in law enforcement records even to the person who filed the report.9Office of the Inspector General. FAQ If you left contact information and an investigator needs more detail, they may reach out. Otherwise, silence is the norm and is not a sign your report was dismissed.
Cases with strong evidence can take one of two paths. The OIG may refer the case to federal prosecutors for criminal charges, or the SSA may handle it administratively through benefit termination and civil penalties. Complex cases with multiple suspects or large dollar amounts take longer. There is no fixed timeline.
If You Work for the SSA or a Federal Contractor
Federal employees who report fraud, waste, or abuse in SSA programs are protected from retaliation under the Whistleblower Protection Act and its 2012 Enhancement Act. It is illegal for an employer to fire, demote, or otherwise retaliate against an employee for a protected disclosure.10Office of the Inspector General. Whistleblower Rights and Protection Employees of federal contractors and grantees have parallel protections under 41 U.S.C. ยง 4712. If you fall into either group, the confidentiality option on the reporting form is a practical first layer, and the statutory protections back it up if you face consequences at work.