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Direct Deposit Auto-Enrollment Fraud Prevention Block

April 22, 2015

Office Affiliation: The Office of Audit

Audit Report Number: A-06-14-14042

Most Social Security beneficiaries are required to receive their payments through direct deposit rather than paper checks. Beneficiaries have a variety of methods available to change their direct deposit account information: they can call or visit an SSA office, call SSA’s 800-number, use SSA’s Website, or contact their financial institution (auto-enrollment).

Unauthorized direct deposit changes can occur when a perpetrator obtains enough personally identifiable information to redirect a payment from the beneficiary’s account into an account they control.

To protect beneficiaries from unauthorized account changes, in November 2012, SSA introduced the Direct Deposit Auto-Enrollment Fraud Prevention (DDFP) block. Beneficiaries or their representative payees may request a DDFP block because of alleged fraud or as a preventive measure.

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