Social Security worker steals $110K from 28 people while working in GA, feds say

A Georgia woman is facing several years in federal prison after she pleaded guilty to stealing more than $110,000 from 28 people while she worked for the Social Security Administration, prosecutors say.

Christina Daniels, 47, a former customer service representative at a Social Security office in Norcross, a city in the Atlanta metro area, changed beneficiaries’ direct deposit information to steal their benefits between January 2023 and May 2024, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.

She made those changes to reroute their Social Security payments to accounts she created with the online money exchange platform Cash App and the banking service Green Dot, prosecutors said.

Daniels had control over the Cash App and Green Dot accounts, which she opened in the names of other Social Security beneficiaries, including her relatives, according to prosecutors, who said she stole their personal information.

Daniel’s court-appointed federal public defender, Joe Austin, did not immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment June 30.

Daniels’ scheme to steal benefits unraveled after prosecutors said multiple retirees reported their monthly benefit payments were missing, leading to internal and criminal investigations.

Daniel’s federal indictment followed on March 11, according to court records. The filing shows Daniels was charged with 27 counts: nine counts of wire fraud, 12 counts of theft of government funds and six counts of aggravated identity theft.

On June 26, Daniels, of Winder, pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government money and one count of aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a June 27 news release. Winder is about a 50-mile drive northeast from Atlanta.

U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement that “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,” Hertzberg added.

Daniels is set to serve at least two years in prison on the identity theft charge, the mandatory minimum sentence for that offense, according to prosecutors.

She faces up to 10 years in prison on the theft of government money charge, prosecutors said.

Her sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 30, court records show.

What to know about government benefits fraud

Out of more than 64,000 federal criminal cases reported to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 2023, nearly 5,000 involved “theft, property destruction and fraud,” according to the agency.

Government benefits fraud made up 16.3% of these cases, and nearly 800 people were sentenced in benefit fraud cases that year, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reports.

This marks a 92.2% increase in government benefits fraud cases since 2019, according to the agency.

Suspected Social Security fraud can be reported online to the SSA Office of the Inspector General or the office’s fraud hotline by calling 1-800-269-0271.

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.