Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site vaxwaller.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!intelca!qantel!vlsvax1!zehntel!varian!vaxwaller!susan
From: susan@vaxwaller.UUCP (Susan Finkelman)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: Social Security Numbers:  A Question
Message-ID: <264@vaxwaller.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 13-May-85 17:32:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: vaxwalle.264
Posted: Mon May 13 17:32:49 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 19-May-85 00:00:49 EDT
References: <2720@drutx.UUCP> <226@ihlpa.UUCP>
Organization: Varian, Walnut Creek, CA
Lines: 32

> > 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
> 
> 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.)

Long ago & far away I was a caseworker for a state welfare system.  We were
required to ask our recipients for the ss# of the alleged absent parent of
the children the state was supporting (never mind how poorly).  If the
person gave us an ss# we checked with every one we could think of who used
that number, including the state employment commission.  If we contacted
this person reported as the absent parent and (s)he denyed parenting the
child, never mind, we ran the same check every six months anyway, and
stuck this stuff in the case record.  So, guilty or not, an investigation
was done.  Not nice?  I don't even know if it was legal!  

I avoid giving out my number when I can.  If I think my causing a 
stink will cause my record(s) to be flagged, I give it, hoping to
get lost in the crush.
	Susan Finkelman, Varian, 2700 Mitchell Dr, Walnut Creek, Ca. 94598
	{zehntel,amd,fortune,resonex,rtech}!varian!susan