How Well Do You Protect Your SSN?
April 2, 2007 by Karen Weideman
Filed under financial matters
My social security number . . . now that’s a very sensitive moderately paranoid subject for me.
I’m just curious to know, how well do you protect your social security number? Do you have it posted on your checks? Is it on your driver’s license? Do you give it freely when stores ask for identification?
I’m just warning you. This is a very touchy subject with me. I am really holding back on the things I have to say. So, here’s the nicest way I can say it:
I DO NOT GIVE OUT MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!!!!!!
If I were to date back to a time when this became a major issue with me, I guess it would be about 10 years ago. My husband and I attended a meeting of some sort about identity theft. My mind was like a sponge as I absorbed everything they had to say. I had always been careful with my social security number. In fact, one time I even left a store with my purchases on the counter because a store refused to take my check without my SSN. I guess it was at the meeting where my SSN became even more precious to me.
Another significant event was when a close family member of mine suffered from identity theft. One day the family member received a call from a credit card company telling her that she couldn’t activate the new credit card from anywhere but home. She was like, “What credit card?”. To make a long story short, someone had used her name, SSN, and other information to apply for a credit card. And do you want to know who was committing the crime????? A receptionist at the doctor’s office. Yes, it’s true!!!!
A few years ago I was listening to Clark Howard on the radio and he said that you don’t even have to give your SSN to the doctor’s office. I’ve pushed this issue some and he’s right. Last year I had the hospital check-in lady get mad at me for not wanting to give my SSN. My son had to have some x-rays. She gave me some sassy attitude, so I told her that was fine, that I’d use the other hospital down the street. Amazingly, she was able to bypass the prompt asking for my SSN. Usually all you have to do is be firm about where you stand.
Did you know that for the past 7 years, identity theft is the No. 1 complaint filed with the federal government? Clark Howard has just let us know about a site that can tell us if our SSN has been compromised. It is called stolenidsearch.com. The site tries to push other ID theft prevention software that costs money, but don’t buy into those. Just enter your number and read what it says.
Stop Identity Theft is another article I wrote that may interest you.
Do you have an identity theft story you’d like to share or have you had issues with people asking for your social security number? Let us know.
I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the stolenidsearch.com site isn’t what you think it is. It’s just a way to collect numbers, and to get you to purchase more info. How do I know this? Two reasons: My credit card WAS one of those involved in the TJMaxx theft of 43 million cards, which I know because someone tried to use my card 3000 miles from my home in a grocery store. And I caught them, changed my card, and when I put the card number and my SS# into the search form, both came up fine. They’re not fine, neither of them.
Second, I work in the world of internet security and I looked up that firm in my records and see absolutely no information about it being an authentic site. I’m very suspicious as well, and I understand the insides of identity theft (not that it helped me when I shopped at Marshalls and my identity infor was stolen from their headquarters but..) that isn’t a secure site. No little lock. Not that it has to be secure. It does have to be encrypted and it wasn’t. No encryption… not safe.
Oh, there is one more thing. There is a lock, it just didn’t show up on my firefox browser right away, and they are using HTTPS, but I wouldn’t trust the secure socket layer without encryption. They say they aren’t saving the numbers… I don’t believe it for a second.
Margalit, Thanks for sharing. Normally, I would be skeptical of a site like this too, but I got this in an email from Clark Howard today:
Is your SSN safe?
There is now a Web site that tells you if your SSN has been compromised. And, yes, it’s okay to enter your number.
Read more!
I can’t imagine Clark recommending a site if it wasn’t safe. Personally, I don’t put my SSN on the internet for any reason. I’m just too protective of it.
Because someone has a radio show they can’t be wrong? Please!
For a monthly fee, you can go to stolenidsearch and have them monitor your credit card and SS numbers. That sounds like a good service until you think it through. In order to do this, in spite of what they may claim, they have to store your numbers. This is the very thing we’re trying to get away from! If on-line merchants store credit card numbers they are in violation of their agreements with the card companies. There’s an obvious reason – it’s a security risk. Yet this company does it in the name of good security? I think not.
We’ve spent years trying to convince computer users not to enter their credit card numbers and other personal data on unknown sites. Now these guys come along with a very plain, amature looking site and startt collecting information!
And their “Featured in …” line means nothing more that they did a good media blitz.
Have a look at:
http://silverstr.ufies.org/blog/archives/000999.html
http://privacy.blogwog.com/blog,156326,External:-StolenIDSearch.com:-Encouraging-users-to-be-too-casual-with-their-personal-info?,0.html
http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/explaining-stolenidsearchcom.html
http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/comment/reply/4485
Or perhaps this article where I was quoted:
http://tinyurl.com/2okngr
What I hate is that the banks want to use your SSN on your checks and the DMV here wants to use it as your driver’s license #. I hate that!
Kelly: When we moved to VA, I heard about the SSN on the driver’s license and was really upset about it. I told hubby that I would keep my NC license and just keep getting it renewed in NC. Thankfully, I found out you can request an alternate number, so that’s what I did. I refuse to have my SSN printed on my checks. In the past few years, I think the only thing I’ve given my SSN out for is taxes and a job.
Tom: Thanks for visiting and commenting. Clark Howard is more than a radio talk show host, but that’s not the whole point here. He is a financial advisor and gives great advice. He really does care about what is best for people. Yes, he is human and he can make mistakes. Maybe this was one of his. Thanks for the links. I’ll go check them out.
I do request a different # but it is such a hassle!
This post definitely got people going! I worry about identity theft and do try to protect myself. Thanks for the tips.
I’m a little more careless with my SSN then I probably should be (not that I go handing it out on the street or anything like that). I’m at work at was trying to access the website that you mentioned – and it was blocked by our system under the category “Illegal or Questionable”. I was dissapointed, but thought others should get a heads up.