Thanks for all responses. So it sounds like at the time I was given the info (ca. 1986) it might actually have worked. Cool- better gift than I thought (and perhaps I should have filed for it :)).
I’m guessing today that a 40 year old applying for a SSN probably has all sorts of hoops to jump through. Or at least should- always surprising what is and what isn’t taken care of that would seem no blamer. (For example, the Social Security Death Index linked to above needs to have some changes made to it- most SSNs are on there within 2-3 months of the person’s death, meaning that if you want Charlton Heston’s SSN it’ll be there soon if it’s not already; now since I’m guessing that Heston left a very large and probably complex estate, this could be a very bad thing for somebody with no principles and a bit of knowledge who wants to play with his bank accounts or other financial information, and I wrote my Congressman about this and got a “Thanks for your correspondence! It means so much to us that we took turns licking it and rolling around on it for the scent, but we don’t plan to do anything about it” form letter.)
Heston’s estate is undoubtedly larger and more complex than my father’s, but in his case all of the assets that were in his name were transferred into a legal entity called “Estate of [Otto’s dad’s real name]” that had its own tax ID number. I was left a small bequest and it could not be disbursed until the estate had the number. Having my dad’s SSN was meaningless as soon as that happened, and it was within days. Getting Heston’s number now would I’m sure be equally useless.
Probably be kind of hard to buy life insurance for him at this point too. Still, I’m guessing that somebody with the know how could use it maliciously, if not to swindle then to find some dirt from his past or whatever.
Of course there is that current commercial where the guy gives “my real Social Security Number” on the side of a van- it’s an advertisement for an identity theft service. I have to admit, that’s a pretty good marketing idea.
At least until very recently, 20th century English birth certificates had to be issued by the original local office where the birth was registered. Who could clearly verify the original records and hence issue the certificate, but who had no means of checking against deaths (especially given that there was a substantial probability that anyone who’d died had done so elsewhere).
As of a couple of years ago, the centralised procedure was that you could go to the Family Records Centre in London and wade though the printed registers of births, marriages and deaths, usually arranged by quarter year, to find the summary entry you wanted, then use that to order the actual certificate from the appropriate local office. Everything was on paper, so cross-checking was impossible.
There is the old, possibly apocryphal, story about what happened after The Day of the Jackel was published. The trick became so commonplace that there was a risk for those employing it that their chosen identity had already been appropriated by another fraudster. Thus the underhand convention arose that if you were taking the identity, you indicated this by pencilling a dot next to the entry in the London copy of the summary of birth registers. That warned anyone else off from using that one. When the authorities became aware that this was happening, their supposed response was the brilliant Civil Service solution to the problem: they issued a junior clerk with a pencil rubber (i.e. an eraser) and told them to go through all the volumes rubbing out the dots.
The system is currently in flux. The Family Records Centre has been closed and the plan is that everything will be digitally available via the DoVE programme.
If you try to get a new SS#, using the name and date of birth of someone who is listed as dead in the system (and it does go back pretty far. I had a cousin that died at age 4 back in the late 60’s and it’s on there) it’s going to pop up a red flag. Just saying “I’m not him” isn’t going to halt an investigation.
Is everyone trying to get new i.d. going to be foiled? No! of course not.
Of course, all of this is only if you want to be “official” or pay taxes or something. If all you want are the papers themselves, you can have a social security card, drivers license and passport within an hour, right on the street in LA.
Actually I would think it better to forge a birth certificate and get documents (SS card, driver licens, etc.) than to risk using one of someone who actually existed. You could pick your own name, date of birth, where you came frome, parents name etc., and there would be no risk of something biting you in the ass later on.
This is NOT legal advice nor encouragement to do anything illegal! I’m just saying.
In the post 9/11 era, things have no doubt tightened up, but around 1990, I was able to go to a county registrar here in Texas and get a birth certificate for my mother-in-law just by providing her name and place/date of birth.
If I had been a con artist, I’m guessing I could’ve gotten a birth certificate quite easily back then.
Birth certificates are public record. Anyone can get one as long as they have the proper information.
I got one for a friend once and he was born in Wales. All I needed was his mother maiden name, fathers name, date of birth and where he was born. I did a search, found the records and ordered it online.
Most cites in the US have online ordering and the ones that don’t you can send them the information with a fee and they will mail you a certified copy.
I was surprised at the cost of them now. I had to get one for my son several years ago and it cost $18 for a certified copy.
Not true. In Alabama you can only get a copy of another person’s birth certificate (or death certificate for that matter) if you’re an immediate family member.
Some states are more flexible, others the same.
I recently got a copy of my birth certificate in Illinois, and I had to provide proof of my identity. I also needed to show proof of my identity to get a copy of my mother’s death certificate.