Social Security: How To Confirm the Validity of ‘New Stimulus Check’ Claims
Americans have been bombarded online with claims about an alleged “fourth stimulus check” going out to seniors or people with disabilities. But these are all just rumors. There’s no check on the way.
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IRS spokesman Anthony Burke said the IRS has paid all the Economic Impact Payments. A Treasury Department spokesperson also told USA Today that no new round of stimulus checks have been approved.
Three rounds of $1,200, $600 and $1,400 federal stimulus payments were sent out to more than 160 million U.S. taxpayers as part of the COVID-19 relief package Congress passed in 2020 and 2021, AARP reported. Burke said people should use IRS.gov as the definitive source of information.
If you’re missing a 2020 or 2021 Recovery Rebate Credit, the IRS says the only way to claim it is by filing a 2023 tax return. The deadline to claim the 2020 credit is May 17, 2024. The deadline to claim the 2021 credit is April 15, 2025.
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McKenzie Sadeghi, AI and foreign influence editor for NewsGuard, told AARP that claims that new payments are on the way are due in part to the growth of generative artificial intelligence in content creation.
“We’ve seen this claim come up regularly on these websites — that you can get a fourth stimulus check,” Sadeghi explained to AARP. “It’s very in line with the type of content that we see from them, which are hoaxes aimed at generating clicks and getting people to the site.”
AARP also reviewed websites and videos that used a common search term, such as “stimulus check,” and applied it to several claims — the IRS is about to send out new payments, multiple states are offering tax credits or rebates and Congress is going to increase Social Security benefits. These are all false.
NewsGuard’s AI Tracking Center has identified more than 700 news and information websites running with little or no human oversights. Sadeghi said the number is growing on a weekly basis and the tracker count is “just scratching the surface.”
Sadeghi recommends looking for these signs of AI-generated content:
Inconsistency: AI-generated articles may contain contradictions, conflicting information or error messages.
Repetition: Look for the repeated use of “stimulus checks” throughout the article.
No attribution: No credit is given anywhere for the source of the information.
Lack of transparency: There’s no byline and the site doesn’t disclose information about who is behind the content.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Social Security: How To Confirm the Validity of ‘New Stimulus Check’ Claims
