I pit my friend K__ who is so totally paranoid about her social security number that she actually prayed for her paperwork to burn up in our boss’s office! (Yes, I was there when she was asking the Almighty to burn her application.)
I don’t know what she’s so frightened of. You have to put your SSN on the contract so they can pay you! But she’s very touchy about giving out her number.
Last Fall she took classes at H & R Block to become a tax preparer. She ran herself ragged to make it to class after working all day. She stayed up all night studying for her finals. She graduated with a pretty good grade and then when it came time to apply for work she refused to sign the contract. All that time, money and effort wasted. :wally
What does she think they are going to do with her number? Draw a goat’s blood pentagram and call up her own personal IRS demon?
Has anybody else heard of something this stupid?
AFAIK, once some unscrupulous person gets ahold of your SSN, it’s pretty easy for them to create another you for their nefarious schemes. Which usually involve credit fraud and your credit rating getting flushed down the proverbial toilet.
That said, this woman is being extremely overcautions.
Of all places to be paranoid about your SSN, employment with H&R Block has to be near the bottom of the list. I mean, the sheer volume of SSNs that they see every day, bandied about, spoken aloud, etc…
I mean, some shady telemarketing firm, sure I could understand. But H&R Block??
What sucks for her is when she finally has to give in and apply for some kind of state assistance because she can’t make any money because she won’t fork over the SSN, she’ll still be SOL because they’re going to ask for it too.
You know, nobody every told me it was supposed to be a secret. My SSN was my Student ID number when I went to college, and it was printed on the mailing label of every letter they sent me. Everybody who has ever asked for it, I’ve given it to them. It’s probably out there in hundreds of databases and files, and now they tell us it’s supposed to be a big secret?
Hell, in Kentucky, for several years, your SSN was your driver’s license number.
I have no problem telling people my SSN (within reason. I’m not gonna post it here). If someone wants to steal my identity, and try to get credit off of it, more power to 'em. Just call me and let me know how it turned out.
When I was taking classes at my local Jr college a couple years back, they still used SSN’s as student ID’s. Sometimes profs would circulate a paper and have everyone write down their SSN as a way of taking roll!!
I refused to give my SSN at the eye doctor the other day. It is unrelated to my insurance, and they couldn’t provide me with any reason to ask for it except that they “always do”. I"m not normally paranoid, and I’d love to see someone try to steal my identity (Hell, I’ll forward all my collections calls right to them!), but still- I think the fewer places that have it in their databases the better. Crooks are getting very clever these days, and my area in particular is having a serious problem with identity theft crimes.
The OP person in question sounds wacked, though. I mean, your employer needs that info to process your tax info and such. Does she think the paycheck fairies just know where to send her info? Sheesh.
I had that happen to me. Someone got credit cards and cell phones in my name and maxed 'em all out. CitiBank called me one day and asked me about it, since the charges were made 500 miles away from me and in suspicious circumstances. 15 minutes later they contacted other card companies and got everything cancelled, and I wasn’t affected 1 bit. I’m not one to like large corporate entities, but they did a more than competent job of protecting my security. They never caught the guy, but meh.
Anyway, the point is, credit fraud protection is increasingly getting better.
Hell, it got so good that when I went to Norway a few weeks back, they locked my card and called me (of course, they called my cell phone, which, of course, doesn’t work in Europe) after I used it to buy a buss pass from Torp to Oslo. Fortunately, I carry backup cards.
I can understand the paranoia somewhat. First, it says right on my SSN card that it’s not to be used as a form of ID. And as has been pointed out, we’ve heard repeatedly that identity theft is rampant and the SSN is one of the easiest tools for ne’er-do-wells to exploit.
I’d say your friend is overly paranoid, but I understand why she’s paranoid to an extent.
And I say feed her paranoia. Fake a website and print it out, with the content being how the SSN was really an early FDR-ordered “Citizen Relocation Number” for determining which internment kamp FEMA will put you in. Ask her what the 5th digit of her SSN is, and whatever her response say “Whew! At least we’ll be in the same gulag…” If she asks where or seems confused, say “Oh, I’m sure I don’t know where, but what I DO know is right now I feel hungry for a DENVER omelet.” Then touch the side of your nose and wink. It helps if you practice this in the mirror…
Because most of my clients have no idea what their case numbers are, my voicemail says “Leave your name, case number or social security number…”
Last week I received a voicemail like this:
“This is Mr. [common last name]. Call me back at xxx-xxxx. I won’t leave my social security number because I know people can hack into your phone system and steal my information. I can’t leave my case number either. Call me right away.”
His name is a massively common name. I know of at least 25 [common last name] on my caseload alone, and I was taking calls for two other workers.
I called him back, but made it clear that he had to leave SOME kind of identifying information. Why? Why do you need to know? Erm, so I can look up your case and possibly have an answer for you when I return your call? He would rather not leave any info, particularly his ssn. Well, then you need to leave your case number. They can steal information about me from my case number. WHO ARE THEY? Hackers. What would they do with that info? Steal my identity.
After going around for about 10 minutes it was decided he will either come down to the office or mail a letter if he has any questions on his case.
I always thought it was kind of stunning that the military, some states, colleges, etc. used SSNs as ID numbers. On the other hand, it’s not that big a secret. I try not to give it out to too many organizations who are just using it as ID, but SSNs are meant to be used as financial identification, and to not give them out to your employer–H&R Block, no less–out of some silly fear of what they’re going to do with it is unbelievable. Even if H&R Block, a perfectly reputable company, suddenly decided to start stealing identities :rolleyes: , why would it use SSNs from its employers and piss them off? There have got to be hundreds of thousands of soshes flying around that organization’s networks every day.
Anybody who’s ever been a student can’t possibly get too uptight about their SSN - they practically tattoo it on your forehead in college. Now, my mom wouldn’t say hers out loud in Publix to get a card from them, and I guess that’s okay, but there’s a lot of stupid paranoia out there about the things. Sure, identity theft is a problem, but that’s hardly the only way to be targeted and the people I know who’ve actually had a problem, not the people I’ve read about in magazines, either had the charges cleared up with no problem or were victimized by family members.
Una, that was hilarious. I’m still sitting here trying to think of how I could alter it to use on some decidedly paranoid family members with no sense of humor, then sit back and watch the mad scramble and all the fun.
