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From: stanwyck@ihlpa.UUCP (Don Stanwyck)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: Social Security Numbers:  A Question
Message-ID: <226@ihlpa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 10-May-85 09:43:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpa.226
Posted: Fri May 10 09:43:01 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 11-May-85 02:18:57 EDT
References: <2720@drutx.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 37

> What do you think will happen to you that is bad if someone
> knows your social security number? .....
>             .....                               But I cannot
> think of any nasty thing that anyone can do to me with my
> SSN--assuming of course that I am an honest taxpaying citizen.
>                                      Sue Brezden

As one who has never been particularly sensitive about giving out my SSN,
I understand Sue's query.  However, I am beginning to get increasingly
sensitive.  It is not so much that I fear anyone getting dirt on me
(is there anything bad to learn about me??)  but rather that there are
people getting information about me that they have no need to know.

I am transferring in 2 weeks to the Westminster, CO ATT-IS plant.  I 
have bought a home in Lafayette, CO.  I called Mountain Bell and
Illinois Bell both yesterday.  (One for disconnect order, the other
for connect and getting my new number).  Both wanted my SSN.  Why, I asked?
Well, they tell me that it is how they verify that you are you.  If you
want to discuss your account with them, they want to have your SSN so
that they feel they have adaquately protected you from others.

I ask you - who is more likely to have my SSN - a credit bureau who
indexes their database by SSN, or my wife, who has no reason to carry
my number with her.

Then I ask - which one - the credit bureau or my wife - is more likely
to have legitimate reason for accessing information on my account?

Perhapos you see my point - that having the number, and spreading it around,
makes it so that anyone can learn anything they want to about you.

(Another example - If I know your address, SSN, and name, I can get your
whole credit history for free.  All I do is write to your local credit
bureau telling them that I am you, and I have just been denied credit
based on a report that supposedly came from them.  They then have to send
me, at no charge, your credit report.  Do you want me accessing it?
It doesn't even matter whether you do or don't.)