Compromised SS#

Fizban140

So someone I work with has my SS number, should I be worried and what can I do?

Feral

Fizban140 wrote: »

So someone I work with has my SS number, should I be worried and what can I do?

Should you be worried? Maybe, maybe not, depends on who it is. I guarantee your human resources department and possibly your boss have your SS number. They can't really pay your payroll taxes without it.

Is this person shady?

Ultimately the only thing you can really do is keep an eye on your credit report and pay attention to any accounts that are opened in your name. You can get one credit report for free from each of the three major credit bureaus by going to https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ but if you have reason to be concerned you probably want to get a new one every 6 months or so.

Fizban140

Thanks, I should be ok because this person is computer illiterate.

VThornheart

Did they get it through illicit means? I mean, if they conned it into you giving it to them, maybe there's some legal recourse?

DrFrylock

The government and other agencies are schizophrenic about your social security number. The SSA says that you should take measures to keep it confidential but yet they allow hundreds of organizations to ask for it, use it as your ID number in myriad situations, and so on. Look at your health insurance card and see whether your ID number is your SSN or your SSN is part of it. I betcha it is.

Because so many people have your SSN, I seriously doubt there is any legal recourse you have against this person. There is no penalty that I'm aware of for knowing someone else's SSN, regardless of how you found out.

Despite the prevalence and cost of identity theft, the government doesn't seem really concerned about doing anything about it. It's really odd, and it may be because politicians seem to be genetically predisposed to not understanding anything that has to do with technology, data, or anything that travels via electrons.

Changing an SSN is a big huge pain in the ass and so I wouldn't go down that path unless absolutely necessary. You can put a 90-day "fraud alert" on with the three major credit bureaus, which should waylay any potential identity thieves, or you can pay a company like Lifelock to do it for you along with continually renewing it.

JonnyBot

I actually work for Lifelock so I have sort of an insider view to this whole thing. I'm not going to pimp my company, as we do everything you can do for free, only we have our million dollar guarantee.

I just want to say definately get fraud alerts set. Just visit the www.equifax.com and they will take care of the other two. And while you are there, order your credit reports. You would not believe the stories I hear from people in your situation. It's very serious and you definately should not let it go.