Social Security Administration Warns Beneficiaries About COLA Scam

Cost of living adjustments for 2025 have already been set at 2.5 percent, the agency said.

A Social Security card sits alongside checks from the U.S. Treasury in Washington on Oct. 14, 2021. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Scammers are targeting Americans receiving Social Security payments with a scheme related to the annual cost of living adjustments (COLA), according to the Social Security Administration (SSA).

The scammers are spreading false information that beneficiaries need to take certain actions to access the COLA increases, the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said in an Oct. 11 statement.