When one works their way up the ladder, or even halfway up, in the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), they are given access to not only a repository of data necessary for millions of people seeking benefits, but they are also sitting on the mother lode of personal identifying information. Which is key to any and all schemes related to committing fraud. As an employee of the SSA, Christina Daniels was entrusted with access to millions of beneficiaries’ personally identifiable information. She abused that trust by accessing sensitive information and using it to steal from the very people she was hired to serve via a direct deposit diversion scheme that stole not only from citizens who earned the benefits, but the U.S. taxpayer.
Between January 2023 to May 2024, Christina Daniels used her position at the SSA office in Norcross, Georgia, to change the direct deposit information for approximately 28 beneficiaries. As a customer service representative, Daniels was able to make changes to beneficiaries’ direct deposit information. Daniels abused this authority to steal more than $110,000.
She accomplished her theft by first opening Green Dot and Cash App accounts using personally identifiable information belonging to unwitting Social Security beneficiaries. After she created the new accounts, she changed the direct deposit information of the unsuspecting beneficiaries to one of the newly opened Green Dot or Cash App mobile banking accounts that she controlled.
Unfortunately for Daniels, several retirement beneficiaries reported that they had not received their monthly benefit payments. Subsequent internal and law enforcement investigations revealed that Daniels had changed the direct deposit information for approximately 28 beneficiaries and that she redirected the benefits to accounts that she opened using the stolen PII of other beneficiaries – some of whom were her family members.
On June 27, 2025, Christina Daniels, a former employee of the SSA, pled guilty yesterday to federal court to theft of government property and aggravated identity theft.
Excellent job with the Social Security Administration – Office of the Inspector General.
Today’s Fraud of the Day is based on article “Former Social Security Worker from Winder, GA Pleads Guilty to Theft and Identity Fraud” published by Hoodline Atlanta News on June 28, 2025.
Yesterday, Christina Daniels, a former Social Security Administration employee, entered a guilty plea for stealing government funds and committing identity theft. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia disclosed the events, stating Daniels took advantage of her position to fraudulently divert over $110,000 of benefits intended for retirees.
Tasked with the duty to help and protect, Daniels instead chose to systematically, and rather egregiously, betray the trust placed in her. “As an employee of the Social Security Administration, Daniels was entrusted with access to millions of beneficiaries’ personally identifiable information.
