The Social Security System (SSS) revealed that new security features have been deployed to its online portal to increase the protection of member, employer, and pensioner accounts.
Per the statement of Michael Regino, the SSS president and chief executive officer as of March 2022, the My.SSS portal will follow stricter guidelines in the enrollment of a disbursement account. These include the need to provide additional proof of identification as well as new internal procedures for the evaluation and approval process.
Improved security features will be added to the process of a member’s request to update their contact information via the online portal, the operation of which will resume once the security features are implemented sometime this month.
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Regino further said that their systems are constantly monitored to ensure that loans and benefits end up with the right recipients. As the security of accounts also depend on the users, Regino advises stakeholders to avoid revealing their login credentials to anyone and to change passwords frequently.
Meanwhile, social media is rife of complaints and reports from apparent victims of scams and fraud that target SSS members. One Facebook user, for instance, exposed a “trick” by scammers that puts your contribution in SSS at risk. It seems scammers need only to change your contact information and change your membership type from compulsory to voluntary in order to have an unauthorized loan processed without the awareness of your employer.
The post went on to claim that the fraud investigation team at SSS was no help at all, and that they would put victims at fault for allegedly divulging their user ID. The fraud team would also apparently give victims the runaround by telling them to ask for assistance from other government agencies instead.