For several months now Social Security has alerted the public to potential scams that are out there where personal information, like Social Security numbers have been targeted, but a recent story reported in Charlotte North Carolina shows that personal information can also fall into the wrong hands through mistakes made by Social Security. Below is a portion of the story that describes the mistakes.
A failure by Social Security Administration employees in Charlotte resulted in the wrong people receiving original copies of others’ Social Security cards, passports, birth certificates and other private documents.
Conversations with several people in Charlotte revealed at least four people were impacted by the mistake. An SSA spokesperson wouldn’t reveal how many others were affected.
The federal agency is now asking anyone who received someone else’s information to contact their local Social Security Office immediately for guidance. The Charlotte Social Security Office can be reached at (888)-383-1598.
A spokesperson for Social Security provided a comment for the story.
“Social Security takes its responsibility to protect the information it maintains seriously,” SSA Regional Communications Director Patti Patterson said. “Due to employee error some information was mailed to incorrect individuals. We are working to contact these people and secure the information.”
Unfortunately mistakes happen, but this is really unacceptable. The agency makes plenty of mistakes as do other government agencies and private businesses, but when you are working with a person’s private information that can be used for identity theft you have to take extra steps to avoid these types of mistakes. These mistakes are even more harmful because Social Security offices remain mostly closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because offices are closed, these mistakes can’t be corrected easily. Most communication with Social Security has to take place online or over the phone, as has been the case since March of 2020.
