Lesson 12 of 13 · About 4 minutes
The raise is automatic
Learn the concept.
For someone already receiving Social Security benefits, a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is automatic. A message asking for money to activate that adjustment is a scam warning.
From a forwarded text to an independent check
Follow the sequence, or move one step at a time.
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Read all 4 steps
- Grandma forwards the message
A message promises a benefit increase. Leo reads what it asks her to do.
- The activation fee appears
The fee is the warning sign: a Social Security COLA does not need paid activation.
- Leo pauses the request
He avoids the message’s link and keeps personal and banking information private.
- Start at the real agency
Leo opens the official site himself and shares the correct reminder with Grandma.
Read Grandma’s text with Leo
Fictional message: “Pay $100 to activate your raise.” Example host: ssa-benefit-activate.example. Do not visit it.
- 01The fee
A COLA does not need paid activation.
- 02The destination
This example host is not ssa.gov. A familiar name in an address is not verification.
- 03The better route
Leave the message. Open ssa.gov yourself and follow its official links.
Read the visualWould an official-looking logo make the $100 activation fee legitimate?
No. The requested fee conflicts with the official COLA process. Verify through the agency’s own website.
Know what does not need activation
Existing beneficiaries do not need to pay a fee or supply extra information to activate a COLA. This is about the annual adjustment; applications and other benefit tasks have their own official processes.
Notice the request behind the promise
A promised increase can make a fee sound reasonable. Pressure to pay immediately or send personal or banking information for a COLA is a red flag. An official-looking logo, badge, or caller name does not establish who sent it.
Choose your own route
Do not use the suspicious message’s link or callback number. Type ssa.gov yourself, then follow the agency’s own account or contact links. A web address containing the letters “gov” is not necessarily a government address.
Pass along the useful reminder
Share the correct advice with someone you care about: no paid COLA activation. Report Social Security impersonation through the SSA Office of the Inspector General’s official reporting page.
Put it in context
In the fictional Day 13 Short, Grandma forwards Leo a text demanding a $100 activation fee for her Social Security raise. Leo notices the fee and an address that is not an official government site. Rather than testing the link, he explains that the COLA is automatic and starts at ssa.gov himself.
Make a decision.
Use what you just learned. A correct answer lets you save this lesson to your progress.
Take this with you.
A Social Security COLA does not need paid activation. Skip the message’s link and start at ssa.gov yourself.
Next lesson: Think before you paste into AIKeep learning with caller ID and phone scams or impostors asking for login codes.
Read SSA’s scam guidance · Report a Social Security scam (opens an official site in a new tab)
See it in a Short.
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