Social Security Funds Redirected to an Unknown Person

For the second time, my mother’s SS account has been hacked and her checks redirected to somewhere unknown. The last time it happened, about a year ago, it took months to get it resolved. I've been to the SS office twice now. The first rep. had problems with a website and told me she would call when the site was fixed. I waited for a week and she did not call so I went back. The next rep told me that the checks had been rerouted to my mother’s nursing home. We (family) checked with the nursing home and they knew nothing about it.

In short, the first rep blew me off and the second rep literally lied to me.

What are my rights at this point? To whom (what authority) do I appeal?

Your rights are: none, at least based only on what you have posted. Are you somehow authorized to act on your mother's behalf?

Your mothers rights would be supreme.


Is your mother in a nursing home? If so, I suggest going back to verify what the SS office told you. The checks being paid to the nursing home is a very common occurrence. If the SS rep told you they were re-routed to the nursing home, if we accept they weren't, how would you suggest the rep even knew your mother was in a nursing home? Did the rep identify the actual name of the nursing home? Even more reason to believe what the rep told you.

How is moms nursing home stay being paid for?

You have no rights. Your mother has the right to be paid her monthly benefits.

You should probably obtain a signed SSA 3288 by your mother that allows SSA to take action for your mother based on your requests. It is designed to be a one-time use form, so with each action you wanted to take, you would need a new form. It doesn't work too well for phone requests.

If your mother is incapable of managing her own benefits because of some dementia problems, you could provide an SSA 787 completed by her doctor to your local office and then apply to be her representative payee. That gives you full rights and responsibilities for her benefits.

Your mother could open her own My Social Security account and then block electronic access. That would prevent any auto-enrollment in the future but would also require her to go in person to the local office to make any changes, unless someone else is her representative payee.

https://secure.ssa.gov/acu/IPS_INTR/blockaccess

Your mother can request that the local office either check the US Treasury status of the electronic transfer or trace the paper check (should be electronic). You could do that on her behalf if you were representative payee or had the authorization listed above.

Electronic checks are both convenient and rife with fraud possibilities.

I suspect her care giver has already done that Janke. It seems the child wants her moms money to use.

Disagreeable,

Perhaps, but that is a big jump from what has been posted.

I built the platform from "my rights" and no return.

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Quoting Janke

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Disagreeable,

Perhaps, but that is a big jump from what has been posted.

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Her care has been, and is, being paid for (more than a year now) by a combination of her insurance when she worked, Medicare and Medicaid.

“Are you somehow authorized to act on your mother's behalf?”

I, my mother’s grandson (my nephew) and my sister, all have power of attorney.

“Is your mother in a nursing home?”

Sorry, I used the term loosely. She is here: http://www.kindredhospitals.com/our-...ion-hospitals/
It is combination, hospital downstairs, and TEMPORARY rehabilitation unit upstairs. She was in the hospital and is now in the rehab.

“If so, I suggest going back to verify what the SS office told you. The checks being paid to the nursing home is a very common occurrence.”

Exiting the SS office, I immediately called my nephew, who stays in close contact with the administrators of Kindred, and he called them. They told him that, because Kindred is always for temporary stays only, SS checks are NEVER sent to them directly.

“If the SS rep told you they were re-routed to the nursing home, if we accept they weren't, how would you suggest the rep even knew your mother was in a nursing home?”

About the time that my nephew noticed that her check had not been deposited into her bank account (as always), I got a letter from SS stating that, as she requested, her check is being rerouted. That’s when the red flag went up. She is completely incapacitated, unable to request anything and we (family) had certainly not requested any changes. This is how it happened the first time and it turned out to be (after a long ordeal/investigation) a cyber criminal in some other country. This is common and epidemic: https://www.google.com/search?q=soci...m=122&ie=UTF-8

I could not see what he was seeing on his computer but we (family) had already explained her history, over the past year or so, several times (in detail) and they had a record of it going back to when the account was hacked the first time a year ago.

“Did the rep identify the actual name of the nursing home?”

YES!

“Even more reason to believe what the rep told you.”

Kindred said no. He lied.

I am 70 and learned a long time ago “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/...n+with+vinegar

I am a USAF veteran, have lived and worked all over the world (speak seven languages) and have a long history of dealing with bureaucrats (definition: evade responsibility and get paid for it.) in various countries and many agencies.

I am never rude or impatient with such people. I understand the difficulty of their jobs. I try to keep it light, joke with them and treat them with compassion.

But I know when they have reached the limit of their possibilities for further investigation, are eager to dismiss me and it’s pointless to pursue it further. It’s time to be bumped up to a higher level…………..but what/whom.

That’s where I am now. So, again I ask, what is my recourse at this point?

Insurances only pay for limited hospital stays. I suspect she has exhausted that.How long has she been there? What exactly are you doing with her money?

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Quoting jmdraft

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So, again I ask, what is my recourse at this point?

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from Janke previously:



You should probably obtain a signed SSA 3288 by your mother that allows SSA to take action for your mother based on your requests. It is designed to be a one-time use form, so with each action you wanted to take, you would need a new form. It doesn't work too well for phone requests.

If your mother is incapable of managing her own benefits because of some dementia problems, you could provide an SSA 787 completed by her doctor to your local office and then apply to be her representative payee. That gives you full rights and responsibilities for her benefits.

Your mother could open her own My Social Security account and then block electronic access. That would prevent any auto-enrollment in the future but would also require her to go in person to the local office to make any changes, unless someone else is her representative payee.

https://secure.ssa.gov/acu/IPS_INTR/blockaccess

Your mother can request that the local office either check the US Treasury status of the electronic transfer or trace the paper check (should be electronic). You could do that on her behalf if you were representative payee or had the authorization listed above.

Thank you Janke

“Your mother could open her own My Social Security account and then block electronic access.”

At the time, I was her representative payee and the first thing I did (first trip to SS) was block access.

“Your mother can request that the local office either check the US Treasury status of the electronic transfer or trace the paper check (should be electronic). You could do that on her behalf if you were representative payee or had the authorization listed above.”

That was the next thing I did. I did it twice (1st & 2nd trip) and got the same, incorrect results both times. They said it was going to a Citi bank account that had 18 numbers in it. Both times, the agent called Citi, we both talked to them and they first said that 18 numbers was not a bank account (I knew that). They checked anyway and could find nothing about the check in their records.

It was at this point that the second agent told me that it was going to the facility she was in at that time. Relieved at first, I left the SS office and we checked immediately. That was incorrect. Scared again, we feared that, once again, it was going to some cyber criminal in who knows what country.

The point of my original question is still the same. When dealing with low level agents who have limited training and experience, you can continue to get one after another of them and accomplish nothing. When this becomes apparent, I want some procedure (clout = form, office, person, agency etc.) to force the issue to be moved up to a higher level of authority and knowledge.

Fortunately, on my third trip (yesterday) I was able to make enough (polite, patient) fuss about it to accomplish this. I got a more senior agent who had extensive experience with this kind of problem, was responsible, sincerely interested and very capable. She resolved (after considerable investigation and procedure) the issue. She also understood and sympathized with our fear that it my have been another cyber criminal because this is not uncommon. https://www.google.com/search?q=soci...m=122&ie=UTF-8

I have no reason not to expect that, in future, other SS problems will come up and I don’t want to have to waste so much time and have to create a commotion to go straight to the capable agent in the first place. My past experience in dealing with government agencies (USAF & civilian, here and abroad) has taught me that, usually, such procedures exist. It’s just that they are often hard to find (certainly not volunteered and require research) and that’s why I tried this forum. I’m still hoping to, eventually; discover the procedure so I’ll be ready when the next mess comes.

What’s really unfortunate is that our enemies are quickly learning the power of cyber attack to ultimately wreck our national economy. They use the stolen money (not just from SS) to acquire new equipment and training and Congress, too preoccupied with reelection and playing golf (at our expense), is still unaware and unconcerned.

A few idiot terrorists blowing themselves up and killing their own people in the Middle East is tragic but trivial compared to the threat to our national security by Cyber attack.