Social Security Number - Identity Theft

Identity Theft

Many citizens and privacy advocates are concerned about the disclosure and processing of Social Security numbers. Furthermore, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated an algorithm which uses publicly available personal information to reconstruct a given SSN.

The SSN is frequently used by those involved in identity theft, since it is interconnected with so many other forms of identification, and because people asking for it treat it as an authenticator. The SSN is generally required by financial institutions to set up bank accounts, credit cards, and obtain loans, partly because it is assumed that no one except the person to whom it was issued will know it.

Exacerbating the problem of using the social security number as an identifier is the fact that the social security card contains no biometric identifiers of any sort, making it essentially impossible to tell whether a person using a certain SSN is truly the person to whom it was issued without relying on some other means of documentation (which may itself have been falsely procured through use of the fraudulent SSN). Congress has proposed federal laws that will restrict the use of SSNs for identification and ban their use for a number of commercial purposes, e.g. rental applications.

The IRS offers alternatives to SSNs in some places where providing untrusted parties with identification numbers is essential. Tax preparers can acquire a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) to include on their client's tax returns (as part of signature requirements). Day care services have tax benefits, and even a sole proprietor should give parents an EIN (employer identification number) to use on their tax return.

The Social Security Administration has suggested that, if asked to provide his or her Social Security number, a citizen should ask which law requires its use.

Identity confusion has also occurred due to the use of local Social Security Numbers by the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau, whose numbers overlap with those of residents of New Hampshire and Maine.

In accordance with §7213 of the 9/11 Commission Implementation Act of 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, there is a limit to the number of replacement Social Security cards one may receive: up to three replacement cards per calendar year and ten in a lifetime.