One of the insidious effects of government imposter scams is the potential erosion of trust among those who are targeted – fraud targets may learn to distrust communications and people who claim to be from the Social Security Administration (SSA) or other federal agencies. This interferes with the necessary and beneficial work of the SSA, and more broadly of the U.S. government.
This study seeks to understand how individuals targeted by government imposter scams respond to communications from the SSA, and how SSA can reinforce public trust and willingness to engage. Specifically, the team will develop a set of materials to build trust and teach individuals how to identify legitimate SSA communication, then test the effectiveness of these materials in randomized trials in both a general sample of Americans and a sample of people previously targeted by fraud.