Facebook and Social Security claims

I recently had a claimant ask if Social Security could have him followed. My response to this question: I am not sure what Social Security is and is not allowed to do in their investigations. What I can tell you is what I have learned from my experience with working at other firms for prosecuting attorneys. If we ever felt that someone was hiding something and we wanted to investigate them we would start by searching for them on Facebook. 75% of the people we searched for were found on Facebook and we were able to get all the evidence we needed off of their Facebook page. However, if we could not find them on Facebook we would end our investigation right there.

The point of sharing this experience with you is to show you the power of your Facebook account. If you are trying to get benefits and perhaps the judge is not quite sure about granting your claim he may want to investigate. The chances of your Facebook account being the first step in the investigation is extremely high. The sad part about this is you may have pictures of yourself hiking the Grand Canyon ten years ago on your account, but the judge does not know this was from ten years ago and he now thinks you are making up your entire disability. Please block your Facebook account. Do not let a complete misunderstanding be the deciding factor in your claim.