David Haas doesn't like to give out his Social Security number. He fends off all the requests he can, from doctors, credit card companies, the bureaucracy at large. In the end, it was summer camp that got him.
"If the camp refuses your child because you won't divulge your Social Security number, you end up giving in," said the Franklin Lakes, N.J., financial planner. Haas kind of caved to his daughter's school, too.
Don't be too hard on him. It is the number that rules us all.
Social Security numbers, which identify the retirement accounts Americans build up over a lifetime of paycheck deductions, are taken in the vast majority of data breaches, simply because they are ubiquitous. They're a juicy target.
Together with other basic information, like name and date of birth, the Social Security number is a passport to a person's identity. Unlike a credit card number, which can be instantly canceled, the SSN serves most people for their entire lives, with some 496 million issued since the first batch of cards went out in 1936. Its use as authentication for personal accounts has expanded the opportunity for fraud.
More here
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Little do you know, that there is NO NEED for a doctors office to have your SS number. All billing is done by POLICY number.
ReplyDeleteSo do not give it to them.
PRMC had a womens center off Pemberton. They used these carbon ribbon label makers. They thru the ribbons in the trash. I found one once in the parking lot.
Name, Date of Birth, Address and SS number on each label they had printed off the ribbon.
I mistakenly returned it to them and called corporate. They were ugly about it like they had done nothing wrong.
Scarey how careless others
ReplyDeletecan be!
I'm pretty sure that the Social Security law says the number will not be used for ANYTHING other than benefit allocation.
ReplyDeleteNot for ID or identification.
Your "leaders" can't even uphold the laws THEY write.......
Keep cheering.
Fascinating this article doesn't report that most Identity Theft occurs because Illegal Aliens need proof of citizenship to get jobs unless they're working under the table. Oh, but that's just too much common sense. Right?
ReplyDeleteMy SS card says not to be used for identication
ReplyDeleteWassup??
127 are you sure it says that? Anyone who says "Wassup?" is generally not too literate.
ReplyDelete