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2023 Annual Conference

May 16–18, 2023

Palace Station Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, NV, US

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The date, time, and room assignment of YOUR presentation is SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

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Confirm your place in the schedule by following the instructionss that were emailed to you. Each presentation must have a separate paid registration. Contact the ACCI office immedicately by email at admin@consumerinterests.org to report any conflict, all corrections to the details of the presentation (including author names and the order they are listed as this is how it will be in the final program), or if you have any questions. Please be sure to reference the session title(s), date(s), and time(s) when you contact us.

C2c Enhancing Trust in the Social Security Administration

Wednesday, May 17, 2023 at 10:45 AM–12:15 PM PDT
Room 2
Short Description

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 study analyzes how individuals targeted by government imposter scams respond to communications from the SSA and how the SSA can reinforce public trust and willingness to engage. Specifically, the team developed an application to teach individuals how to identify legitimate communications from the SSA, other government bodies, and retail companies. Multiple national samples of Americans, in which some participants were prior victims of scams, were then assigned in randomized trials and tested on their ability to distinguish between real and fraudulent communications. We find nearly universal exposure to fraud attempts in the national samples, low prevalence of paying money to fraud perpetrators in response to those attempts, and a set of personal characteristics that appear to predict low trust in the SSA and other institutions. We also find evidence that interactive online training can help people both trust real communications and identify scams.

Type of presentation

Accepted Oral Presentation

Submitter

Cliff Robb, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Authors

Cliff Robb, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Marti Deliema, University of Minnesota
Steve Wendel, Behavioral Technology LLC
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