The Social Security Administration (SSA) has issued a warning for Americans regarding scams that are stealing benefits from thousands of recipients each year.

As part of its annual Slam the Scam Day, held on March 7, the SSA warned that criminals are using “sophisticated tactics” to get beneficiaries to disclose personal information that can put their government benefits at risk of being stolen.

According to the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General, there was a 61.7 percent increase of reported scams between Q3 of the financial year in 2022 and the same period in 2023. In the former, just over 13,000 scams were reported, rising to 21,080 in the latter.

The SSA explained in a release made on Thursday that scammers employ a variety of tactics known as the five P’s: “Pretend, Prize or Problem, Pressure, and Payment.” Common scams involve a fraudster claiming a person’s Social Security number or benefits is suspended and they need your personal information to reactivate or reissue, being told they need to pay to access their benefits, or that a person owes money to the SSA and needs to pay immediately.

“Other common tactics include citing ‘badge numbers,’ using fraudulent Social Security letterhead, and creating imposter social media pages to target individuals for payment or personal information,” the SSA explained in the release. Newsweek has contacted the SSA to see if it has any further comment via email outside of normal working hours.