The Social Security Administration is very excited about a new online service that is available for individuals to request a replacement Social Security card using the “my Social Security” account.
The SSA is advertising that you can avoid a trip to your local Social Security office and is encouraging individuals to share this good news with friends and family. The service is available by going to www.socialsecurity.gov/ssnumber.
This is also the site where you can verify your annual earnings each year and get an estimate of your future benefits. If you currently receive Social Security benefits, you can use your account to change your address and telephone number, change your direct deposit or get a replacement SSA-1099 or SSA-1042S for your taxes.
The hope is that you take advantage of their “many services” available through their “convenient, secure, and free my Social Security Account”.
With that being said, I just received an email from a virus protection provider advising us that the cyber world is continuing to be a great place for miscreants to provide big headaches for anyone and everyone connected to the internet. They bad guys are now able to include malicious code in Microsoft Word attachments and who knows what / where else we are at risk these days.
Identity theft is also at an all-time high.
So my questions are, do we want / need to be able to get replacement Social Security cards online? Should we be able to update our banking information, address or telephone numbers on that site?
While I am all in favor of new technologies, I am definitely not in favor of this move by the SSA.