Social Security Numbers - Fraud Library

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The Social Security number (SSN) is a 9-digit number issued by the United Sates of America to citizens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents under section 205(c)(2) of the Social Security Act, codified as 42 U.S.C. § 405(c)(2). The number is issued by the Social Security Administration to an individual. Its primary purpose is to track individuals for taxation purposes. In recent years the SSN has become the industry accepted national identification number

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Understanding the SSN

The Social Security number (SSN) is a 9-digit number issued by the United Sates of America to citizens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents under section 205(c)(2) of the Social Security Act, codified as 42 U.S.C. § 405(c)(2). The number is issued by the Social Security Administration to an individual. Its primary purpose is to track individuals for taxation purposes. In recent years the SSN has become the industry accepted national identification number

What you need to Know

• Congress has proposed federal laws that will restrict the use of SSNs for identification and ban their use for a number of commercial purposes, e.g. rental applications.
• There is no law requiring a U.S. citizen to apply for a Social Security number to live or work in the United States; however, it is required for parents to claim their children as tax dependents. It should be noted that the liklihood a person does not have a SSN in the USA is very slim, since most financial activties require the use of one.
  
• The Social Security number is a nine-digit number in the format "123-45-6789". The number is divided into three parts.
  
  • The Area Number, the first three digits, is assigned by the geographical region. Since 1973, when SSA began assigning SSNs and issuing cards centrally, the area number assigned has been based on the ZIP code in the mailing address provided on the application for the original Social Security card. The applicant's mailing address does not have to be the same as their place of residence. Thus, the Area Number does not necessarily represent the State of residence of the applicant, neither prior to 1973, nor since.
    • Currently, a valid SSN cannot have an area number above 772, the highest area number which the Social Security Administration has allocated.
  • The middle two digits are the group number. They have no special geographic or data significance but merely serve to break the number into conveniently sized blocks for orderly issuance.
    • There is a theory that the two middle digits can be used to identify a person's ethnic background. This is debunked as an urban legend on the Social Security Administration's website.
      
  • The last four digits are serial numbers. They represent a straight numerical sequence of digits from 0001-9999 within the group.
• The following numbers are not valid
  • There are also special numbers which will never be allocated:
    
    • Numbers with all zeros in any digit group (000-xx-####, ###-00-####, ###-xx-0000).
      
    • Numbers of the form 666-xx-####.
      
    • Numbers from 987-65-4320 to 987-65-4329 are reserved for use in advertisements.
      
    • Woolworth department stores had provided a sample SSN card in their wallets that had an SSN of 078-05-1120, and this number had been used by over 40,000 people falsly, the real owner of this number is deceased.
    • 457-55-5462 is the SSN posted by the CEO of Lifelock on the web and in advertising.
  • When a person dies the SSA publishes this fact, as the SSN is released to the public domain, this list is over 79 million records long, and can be checked manually for free at Rootweb.com, look for the SSDI, or social security death indicator.
• Some third party vendors include the SSDI indication with their service.

External links
Social Security Administration , Social Security Death Index , The Woolworth Card ,Social Security Cards Issued by Woolworth , "Social Security Cards: De Facto National Identification",  20 C.F.R. 422.103 , Social Security Number Chronology. , Social Security Numbers For Children. , National Personnel Records Center. ,
 List of valid area numbers. , FAQ on invalid SSNs. , Luna, J. The story of the most misused number of all time….  

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