Posted on 12/03/2010 12:32:24 PM PST by businessprofessor
What are the odds someone else has used your Social Security number? One in 7.
That’s the stunning conclusion of a San Diego company's analysis of 290 million Social Security numbers, which found that 40 million of them have been attached to more than one name. The study, conducted by the fraud-fighting firm ID Analytics, is the first of its kind that’s been made available to the public.
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(Excerpt) Read more at redtape.msnbc.com ...
You can forget about that - contribute $2,000,000 lifetime, get $2400/month max in retirement. Eat dog food.
I balked at first, but I agreed. They guy said, " Great, let me get a little info, etc..
He asked for my SSN, and I gave it. He asked me if I'd ever changed my name. I said, no, why is that. He should me the screen, and someone with a name, Julio Espinoza or some such already had a Sears account with that SSN.
I declined the CC at that point. Sears suggested I file a complaint with some Federal agency, I forget which one. I did and never heard anything back. The Feds did suggest I obtain credit reports from the 3 companies that track such things, I received the reports from the credit agencies, nothing suspicious.
“The firm does offer a Web-based tool that allows consumers to get a sense of their risk, called MyIDScore.com, but that only generates a score based on a 1-1,000 scale suggesting the likelihood that someone else might be using your SSN or other elements of your identity. The tool is free, and consumers can check their score without supplying their SSN, but the website includes advertising for paid identity theft protection services.”
http://www.idanalytics.com/solutions/consumer/my-ID-score/
What happens if a person who is using your SSN dies and gets listed on the social security death master file. You might want to check it and see if you are still listed as living:
http://www.ntis.gov/products/ssa-dmf.aspx
Perhaps no fraud has taken place at all. It may be that the employee who entered the data into the computer for the other customer transposed a number or two and inadvertently created your SS#. Sears could verify this with a phone call to that customer.
So, what happens if one does have extra dollars being paid in by someone else - for years when retirement occurs, e.g. do they benefit from those dollars (higher monthly check)?
I wonder what the downside is since SS and the IRS don’t seem to care.
Yep!
bttt
Definitely a scam. DO NOT put in your number.
ping
I went to collect unemployment and discovered that I was dead and therefore inelegible to collect benefits. It turned out that a worker on the north slope was using my SSN and had died in a fairly gruesome fashion by having a building fall on him. I had to show up at the office with my documents to prove I was still alive. When I went to the SS office to clear it up, they told me not to worry about it. I still get my earnings and benefit statements from SS, in the unlikely event the program exists when I retire to a comfortable life of roadkill and ramen noodles.
“That’s why they will never be used for personal identification /s”
No, that’s why they have tried to stop using them for personal identification. And failed miserably. I believe one could use this as a classic demo of the Law of Unintended Consequences.
That sounds better than the $59 per month I am currently set to receive.
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