Protecting Social Security number

[Rakkasan]

Not sure where to put this so TC gets it.

 

Are any of the members who have their fiance' / wives in the US taking any steps to protect her SSN. Most of have our SSN all over the place with no hope of ever getting it back under control. What got me thinking about this is that I do medical transcription on the side and every day I get a patient list with 70 names and the patient SSN as an identifier. Other than making filing easier a doctors office really has no need for your SSN. Really only the IRS, employer, bank and those with whom you apply for credit have a real need.

 

Does it really matter? Do you tell your SO not to give it out to any business or individuals? What steps if any are you taking to protect her SSN and to protect her from identity theft?

 

By the way I woud identity theft would be a major problem for someone here with a conditional green card. Maybe not, anyone with experience?

[papa bear]

Not sure where to put this so TC gets it.

 

Are any of the members who have their fiance' / wives in the US taking any steps to protect her SSN. Most of have our SSN all over the place with no hope of ever getting it back under control. What got me thinking about this is that I do medical transcription on the side and every day I get a patient list with 70 names and the patient SSN as an identifier. Other than making filing easier a doctors office really has no need for your SSN. Really only the IRS, employer, bank and those with whom you apply for credit have a real need.

 

Does it really matter? Do you tell your SO not to give it out to any business or individuals? What steps if any are you taking to protect her SSN and to protect her from identity theft?

 

By the way I woud identity theft would be a major problem for someone here with a conditional green card. Maybe not, anyone with experience?

I don't know but I am glad you brought this up.

 

Since you have only had about 9 views at this point maybe people are avoiding this thread because of the title, it sounds like a loaded political question.

And you know where that will lead!

Edited April 25, 2007 by papa bear (see edit history)

[Randy W]

In general, there is no more reason for her to use hers than there is for me to use mine. I keep her card with mine here in my desk.

[Joanne]

However, my landlord asked for ours because they needs to run a credit check on us. How could I refuse?

[Joanne]

Just because we don't want to turn in our relative's SSN to my current landlord in Philly (This apartment owner always wants a co-signer no matter what), we are still not able to lease the apartment. We are basically renting it three months at a time by paying full rent in advance.

[bosco]

The "Identity Theft" that so many are afraid of is a very rare crime. What most people experience when they say "Identity Theft" is actually just simple credit card theft which is usually very simple to fix with your credit card company. A whole new industry has cropped up around yet another form of fear mongering to create a market for a product.

 

That being said, yes, it is very important to impress upon our SO's that they must be careful about sharing their SSN. I have told Ling that until she is more familiar with American practices, she should call me if someone says they need any personal information about either of us.

 

Almost on topic: Yesterday I asked the people at the Social Security office about immigration requiring us to provide the SSN's of our exes. They were surprised and concerned. Maybe something will be done about this issue.

Edited April 25, 2007 by Ling-Curt (see edit history)

[yuehan123]

I've tried refusing to give out my SSN to medical providers. As Don said, the stock reply is "We need it" The implication is take your business elsewhere.

 

Yeah, my medical health plan card no longer uses the SSN but, the eye care card and their system still does. The eye care providers still use SSN for database identity, after all it is unique. What the law says I haven't a clue.

 

Agree about Credit Cards. During a driving trip to and from Alaska in 2004 I was near Sacramento, Ca nearing home when my CC was refused at a gas station pump. I didn't much care, didn't go inside as requested. I just filled up on another card and went home. A couple days later while making an in store purchase my card was again refused. Called in from the check out line. Well, the clerk was required to phone by the store computer system.

 

Bottom line? Somebody used my credit card number to Internet purchase computer equipment and jewelry. CC company 'recognized' that was not my usual pattern and blocked all transactions going back to the day of the suspect purchases which was the day I tried to buy gas.

[papa bear]

Once someone gets your SSN they can get almost any information on you they need to get credit cards, bank loans, ect. illegal aliens use them to get jobs. It can be a nightmare, it took a coworker of mine 3 years to get his credit straightened out and he still had to pay some of the debt out of his own pocket.

Just be careful with it.

[Joanne]

Now I am really scared.

[Joanne]

Is there anyway to find out whether it is misused?

[Rakkasan]

Now I am really scared.

Do not be scared Joanne. Although identity theft does happen it is pretty rare. Just be careful with your personal information. Do not give out your SSN to just anyone. Read Dons post about who it should be limited to. Also do not give out personal information over the internet in response to an email request. If you are making a purchase from a web site and it is a site that you selected you should be OK, but be careful with emails, some emails will look like they are from legitimate businesses, the links will even take you to a web page that looks like a page for a legitimate business, but it is a scam to gather your personal information. Also if you use a debit card be careful when entering your PIN, make sure no one is watching over your shoulder when you are making a purchase.

 

I live in a fairly small city so I do not worry to much about theft. However recently several employees were arrested at a chain of Mexican restaurants for taking peoples debit/credit card numbers and using them to make purchases online purchases. I don't know how you would protect yourself from this kind of activity other than paying cash or eating at home.

 

The purpose of my original post was not to cause fear for you and other new residents in the US. I intend to make an effort to protect Zhen's SSN when she arrives and I was wondering if others were doing the same.

[shanghaigale]

You are so right on never linking to web sites from emails. I do a large amount of business on Ebay and use Paypal a lot and I have received literally hundreds and hundreds of different phishing emails to try and obtain my personal information. Some of them are really quite ingenious as to how they try to fool you. I used to always report them to both Ebay and Paypal, but after the first 50 or so, I finally gave up. I still get probably an average of 5 a week. I even get them from many sites that try to pass them off as different banks. In the last week I received one from a false bank of america and also Wells Fargo bank. I have got to the point that I never even open them and simply delete them. If for some reason, I think they may be real, I directly go to the web site or call the real companies physical site and question them about it. Rule of thumb don't play with them at all, just hit the delete button. Its the only safe thing to do.

Gale

 

There are any number of credit card scams and you really can't protect yourself from all of them. However, never link to a website from an email and provide personal info. Always go directly to the site itself. Redirecting sites is known as phishing to trick people into giving up personal identity info.

 

Never, ever give personal info to anyone on the telephone unless you are the one who placed the call. If someone calls you, you have no idea who you are talking with.

 

There are also little tricks that some scammers do when they have possession of your credit card. There are small, hand held card readers that can record the magnetic code in the scanline. When a waiter/waitress takes your card up to the cashier to pay your check, they can swipe you card info (that includes the number, expiry date and security code). Later they download them and sell them.

 

I don't mean to scare anyone, but this is a different world than it used to be. Be prudent and not too trusting of people you don't know. If someone asks for your SSN, simply ask why they 'need' it.

[MarkD]

Is there anyway to find out whether it is misused?

You can get 3 free credit reports every year from AnnualCreditReport. It is a web site that the US government forced the 3 big credit reporting agencies to setup. You can get one report a year from each agency - Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. I get a report from agency every 4 months just to see what's going on (not because I'm paranoid).

 

You can look on the report for any strange activity. If you find something wrong on your report you can contact the agency with the error and they are required to double check the error within a certain period of time.

 

I taught my wife to never give out her SSN unless it is for a government purpose. Seems that more places are asking for it. We just got life insurance for her and they wouldn't approve the application with out her SSN. We have refused to do business with some companies because of their insistence for having our SSNs when they have no legitimate need for it.

Edited April 27, 2007 by MarkD (see edit history)

[Joanne]

Is there anyway to find out whether it is misused?

You can get 3 free credit reports every year from AnnualCreditReport. It is a web site that the US government forced the 3 big credit reporting agencies to setup. You can get one report a year from each agency - Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. I get a report from agency every 4 months just to see what's going on (not because I'm paranoid).

 

You can look on the report for any strange activity. If you find something wrong on your report you can contact the agency with the error and they are required to double check the error within a certain period of time.

 

I taught my wife to never give out her SSN unless it is for a government purpose. Seems that more places are asking for it. We just got life insurance for her and they wouldn't approve the application with out her SSN. We have refused to do business with some companies because of their insistence for having our SSNs when they have no legitimate need for it.

Thanks, Mark!

[yuehan123]

Is there anyway to find out whether it is misused?

Beyond what's already been said you can also sign up for several different kinds of alerts relating to your credit. In some states you can apply to 'lock' down your credit but this may not be a useful option if you want a loan, new cc or need a credit check run.