I have some follow up about Social Security.

[yellow dahlia]

There have been a few threads about Social Security in the past couple of days.

I started paying close attention, because I got a (supposed) email from Social Security on Saturday.

I called my local office today. I used the phone # for the local office, which I had in my file.They answered within a few minutes.

Here are some things I learned;

1) The information officer said - SS did not email me. That's what I thought. She said I could report this to the IG. I am holding off for now, because I do not know that I can trust the management at SS - so unfortunate.

I explained to her that yesterday I logged into my account w/ the username and password I created, when I signed up for SS a couple of years ago. (As part of that process, I received a verification code on my phone.) Once on my portal page, I was instructed that I should change my sign up method to login.gov or ID.me. I did not do so, because I had seen on this forum that people were being required to upload a photo of themselves. I was not going to provide Eloon and his hacker punks with the ability to use facial recognition on me. (After they also have all my personal info also - no way.)

2) The woman at SS told me - I do not have to change my log in method. She said I can continue to use the old method of logging in w/ username and password.

3) She said I will not be required to upload a photo ID for identification.

She has answered some questions. But other questions remain. Why are people on this forum having experiences contrary to her information?

I have heard one DUer say they received a text inquiry from SS - that should not be so. I have heard more than one person say they were required to upload a photo. One DUer mentioned uploading a video, and doing a virtual interaction of some sort, as well.

I am not sure of the complete story about login.gov. I spoke to someone at my Congress critter's office, and they were able to determine that it is. Here is what I may have figured out. It is a log in provider for many governmental agencies, that has now been incorporated into the Social Security sphere. How that happened, I don't know. Whether or not it is the best option for us to use w/ SS - I don't yet know.

I plan on pursuing this further, and will keep you all informed.

If you have any unusual interactions to share, please do. I will try and "catalogue" them.