“It seems odd that the Social security administration, apparently does not get notified of peoples deaths.”
A few days after my mom passed away, I called the Social Security office to notify the agency. The woman on the other end said, “Oh, we already know that.”
That was about eight years ago.
When my grandpa died at hospital. My grandma and I left and went directly to the bank and cashed out the accounts leaving only a few dollars. They didn’t have much and his SS check hadn’t been deposited/arrived yet. So no fraud- just their money from savings, checking, etc.