Social Security COLA 2027 Scams: What the Watchdog Warns, Plus a 3.6% Increase Chart and 2027 Pay Dates

Scammers are already using the 2027 Social Security raise as bait. The Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is warning beneficiaries about texts, letters and calls that demand a fee, often $100, or personal information to “activate” the 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2027. None of that is real. The COLA is applied automatically, and nobody has to pay, sign up or confirm anything to receive it.

What the inspector general is warning about

SSA announced the 3.6% increase on Oct. 14, 2026, the largest since 2023. Three days later, OIG senior adviser Mary Miller told Yahoo News that COLA scams have worked in past years and that fraudsters tend to reuse tactics that succeeded before. The watchdog described four patterns:

Tactic	How it looks
Fake activation fees	A caller, text or letter says you must pay, or give your Social Security number, to get the 2027 raise
Fake messages and websites	Texts, emails, social media posts or letters with a link to a site that copies SSA’s design
Government impersonation	A “fraud alert” from a store or bank, then a transfer to someone posing as SSA, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or police
Threats and payment demands	Warnings of arrest or a suspended Social Security number, followed by a demand for payment

Scammers ask to be paid in ways that are hard to trace: gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfers, prepaid debit cards, cash and even gold bars. The OIG also says spotting a scam by its bad spelling no longer works well, because fraudsters use artificial intelligence (AI) to write convincing messages and build realistic fake sites.

Three alerts from the past three months

Sept. 21, 2026: Fees to “boost” benefits. The OIG warned about offers to “boost” or “maximize” a Social Security benefit for an upfront fee. SSA does not raise benefits in exchange for money. Benefit amounts are set by law from your earnings record and cannot be negotiated over the phone.

Sept. 28, 2026: Barcodes and quick response (QR) codes. A caller posing as police or a federal agent says you owe a fine, or that a relative needs bail, and texts you barcodes or QR codes to load with cash at a store. Some victims have lost thousands of dollars. The caller may even use a cloned voice of a family member.

July 29, 2026: Fake call transfers. A call starts with a “retailer” asking about a purchase you didn’t make, then transfers you to “Social Security.” According to the OIG, no company or other agency can transfer your call to SSA. When that happens, the agency says, “it is a scam, without exception, every time.”

COLA scams are not new. In an earlier alert, the OIG described fake letters on copied SSA letterhead telling people to call a toll-free number to activate their COLA.

Red flags at a glance

It is a scam if someone:

• asks for a fee or a gift card to activate or speed up your 2027 raise;
• asks you to confirm your Social Security number or bank account to receive the COLA;
• sends a link or a code to scan, out of the blue;
• transfers your call to “Social Security” from a store, bank or another agency;
• threatens arrest, legal action or a suspended Social Security number;
• tells you to keep the conversation secret, or to move money somewhere “safe.”

What to do if you are contacted

1. Stop. Hang up, or don’t reply. Don’t press any numbers, open links or scan codes.
2. Check through SSA directly. Type ssa.gov/myaccount into your browser, or call SSA at 1-800-772-1213. Caller ID can be faked, so use a number you look up yourself.
3. Report it to the inspector general at oig.ssa.gov/report or the Fraud Hotline, 1-800-269-0271, and to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
4. Tell someone you trust. Scammers depend on urgency and secrecy; a second opinion breaks both.

If you have already paid, contact your bank or card issuer immediately, and include the payment details in your report. The free COLA scam checklist below fits on one page and can go next to the phone of an older parent or neighbor.

How big the problem is

People told the FTC they lost about $920 million to government impersonators in 2025, up from $789 million in 2024, according to data the agency released on June 15, 2026. Impostor scams of all kinds cost $3.5 billion, and nearly one in three fraud reports the FTC received was about an impostor.

Social Security increase 2027 chart

Here is what the real 3.6% increase looks like. Multiply your current monthly benefit by 1.036 and round down to the dollar:

2026 monthly benefit	2027 monthly benefit	Raise per month	Raise per year
$1,000	$1,036	+$36	+$432
$1,250	$1,295	+$45	+$540
$1,500	$1,554	+$54	+$648
$1,750	$1,813	+$63	+$756
$2,000	$2,072	+$72	+$864
$2,095 (average retiree)	$2,170	+$75	+$900
$2,500	$2,590	+$90	+$1,080
$3,000	$3,108	+$108	+$1,296
$3,500	$3,626	+$126	+$1,512
$4,152 (maximum at full retirement age)	$4,188	+$36	+$432

These are estimates before Medicare premiums and tax withholding. SSA applies the COLA to your primary insurance amount rather than the payment after deductions, so your notice may differ by a dollar or two. The maximum benefit at full retirement age grows by less than 3.6% because it is also tied to the earnings cap for each year. The printable chart covers every $100 step from $600 to $5,100. For the full breakdown of the announcement, including SSI amounts and the 2027 earnings limits, see our 3.6% COLA report.

Medicare Part B premiums, usually deducted from Social Security, will be announced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, typically in November. The 2026 Medicare Trustees Report projected $209.50 a month for 2027, up from $202.90, but that is not the final figure. Medicare open enrollment runs through Dec. 7; our Medicare open enrollment guide has the details.

Social Security payment schedule 2027

Social Security pays on a Wednesday set by your birth date. SSI pays on the 1st of the month, and people who began benefits before May 1997, or who also get SSI, are paid on the 3rd. When the 1st or 3rd falls on a weekend or federal holiday, the payment moves to the business day before.

Month	SSI	The 3rd	Born 1st–10th	Born 11th–20th	Born 21st–31st
January	Dec. 31, 2026	Dec. 31, 2026	Jan. 13	Jan. 20	Jan. 27
February	Feb. 1	Feb. 3	Feb. 10	Feb. 17	Feb. 24
March	March 1	March 3	March 10	March 17	March 24
April	April 1	April 2	April 14	April 21	April 28
May	April 30	May 3	May 12	May 19	May 26
June	June 1	June 3	June 9	June 16	June 23
July	July 1	July 2	July 14	July 21	July 28
August	July 30	Aug. 3	Aug. 11	Aug. 18	Aug. 25
September	Sept. 1	Sept. 3	Sept. 8	Sept. 15	Sept. 22
October	Oct. 1	Oct. 1	Oct. 13	Oct. 20	Oct. 27
November	Nov. 1	Nov. 3	Nov. 10	Nov. 17	Nov. 24
December	Dec. 1	Dec. 3	Dec. 8	Dec. 15	Dec. 22

Because of those moves, SSI recipients receive no payment dated in January, May or August 2027, and two in April (April 1 and 30), July (July 1 and 30) and December (Dec. 1 and Thursday, Dec. 30). The Dec. 30 payment is January 2028’s benefit, paid early because New Year’s Day 2028 falls on a Saturday and is observed on Friday, Dec. 31. Each second payment is the next month’s benefit arriving early, not a bonus, and a message promising an “extra” payment is another common hook. These dates match SSA’s official 2027 payment schedule, Publication No. 05-10031. To mark your own paydays, print a January 2027 calendar or the whole 2027 yearly calendar.

Real dates for the 2027 COLA

Date	What actually happens
Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2026	Last day to opt in to online notices in my Social Security
Late November 2026	COLA notices appear in my Social Security accounts
December 2026	Paper COLA notices arrive by mail
Thursday, Dec. 31, 2026	First SSI payment with the 3.6% increase
Jan. 13, 20 and 27, 2027	First Social Security payments with the 3.6% increase

The genuine notice comes from SSA by mail or inside your my Social Security account. It never asks for a payment. If a message about your COLA arrives any other way, start from the assumption that it is a scam, and keep a December 2026 calendar handy to check the real dates.