People think that their social security number is safe, but is it?
Some people are careful about not revealing their social security number rot just anyone. However, there are so many computer programs that crunch data publicly that it becomes inevitable for people to protect their SSN.
How To Find Someone’s Social Security Number?
For those who don’t know much about SSN, keep on reading this article.
- SSN is part of an American’s identity, and it is a nine-digit number, that you must keep as part of your financial identity.
- When you have an SSN, then you will be able to track the earnings of your life, and as a taxpayer, you even get the return on that earning.
These earnings are returned to the people in the shape of disability checks or income checks, but you have to be a certain age for it.
All a person needs, to find someone’s SSN, is their date of birth and the state in which they live.
This has been researchers by different university researchers, where they have emphasized that Americans need to work really hard if they want to protect their social security number.
University Researchers and SSN
The researchers of multiple universities have also found out that, there is a pattern in SSN data. The SSN digits assigned to different people have a strong correlation with their date of birth.
In fact, many researchers came up with an algorithm, and found out two things about SSN:
- Individual with the same birth date
- Individuals from the same state
They were most likely to have the same SSN as well.
The organizations that require users to give out their SSN, only reveal the last four digits of an SSN in their documents. However, this safety measure isn’t sufficient, because the first five digits can be easily predicted by anyone.
Those who want the SSN of others have designed computer programs through which they can run different possibilities. They get a good number to fool websites, the ones that ask for a valid SSN.
You can also use a third-party service to find someone’s social security number that’s pretty chances.
Third-Party Service
SSN is guarded by many people and technology; however, it can still end up in the wrong hands.
- If someone wants to find someone else’s SSN, then they need their exact name.
- The exact name is mentioned on a person’s birth certificate.
- If someone is deceased, and you want their SSN, then use the Social Security Death Index.
There are many online services, which run the name of a deceased person in their index, for free. However, if you really want the SSN of a person who is alive, then you need their consent.
- If you can’t get their consent, then try out the date of birth method, which works most of the time.
- As employers know about their employee’s SSN, they are not allowed to give their confidential information to someone else.
You can use this book to know more about how to do it.
Benefits of SSN
An SSN is not just a 9 digit number but has multiple benefits associated with it as well. SSN is used by the IRS, as this is the way they keep track of your earnings.
- This is like a ledger of how much you have earned, and the tax you have filed.
- The SS income that you receive, is based on the years you have worked, and the earnings you have made.
- When you turn 62 in the USA, you can collect that income, but sometimes people don’t collect until 66, because the amount increases this way.
Even though people know how important their SSN is, they have made their personal information available for the world to see.
For example, if you want to find someone’s social security number and birth date, then you only need to track down their Facebook account. There is so much information that people put up on their social media accounts.
The information that they make public, can easily be used for cheating them out of money. The only way to solve the theft problem would be if the SSN is not associated with the birth date of the person.
They could be random digits. Passwords can be changed, but a person’s SSN remains the same. If someone has seen your SSN, or if you doubt someone has, then you can’t change it like a password.
Read more: How to Change Your Email on Instagram?
