This just in: Customer Service reps in India know your Social Security #

I know this is very commonplace, but it just hit me while I was on the phone with New Delhi or wherever it was that now our SSNs are available worldwide! Yay! :eyes:

Not only that, it's even easier to steal them now - because a thief only has to know the last 4 digits. The 'security' people on the other end of the line would never know or prove that he or she did not know the rest. How many of us casually reel off the 'last four' without thinking who might be listening? After all, it's not your WHOLE soc sec number. Well now it doesn't HAVE to be.

:scared: Hold me!

Don't think too much about it, or you'll go bonkers. :hug:

:hug:

as you SS#

Say Bob, an awful lot of retirees seem to be moving to India.

Ya don't say, Joe. Wonder why that is.

I dunno. Maybe the weather and cheap beef?

Yeah, strange though. Might as well start issuing next month's benefits.

Check.

:scared:

:rofl:

You kill me.

But...eh...they can add it to the list. ;)

I work for a Credit Card company and there are plenty of checks & balances to ensure that I don't do something stupid. Hell, I had to get an FBI background check before I could get a job. As for India, if they are associated with a major credit card company I'm sure they have the same checks & balances in place. Believe it or not - we Credit Card employees aren't all mean, nasty people.

"oh, they would never do that."

Usually talking about republicans.
I'm quite sure you and your fellow employees wouldn't
do that kind of thing, but I cancelled my cards just in case.

and the consequences would be way too devastating

Not worth it

It just kinda hit me. :crazy:

(And yes it is a reputable CC company. With 'American' in the name. And 'Express'. But that's all I'm saying.) ;-)

and your shoe size... What you eat, read, drive.

Where you live.

and on... and on... and on... and on...

Whoops. I mean HOMERLAND SECURITY.

Many states use your SSN as your drivers license number. When you get pulled over some police officers will run your license by oln (drivers license number). The dispatcher will repeat back your name, date of birth, male/female, and even address. If the officer requests it they will also tell them any identifying marks about you (height, weight, eye color)-ALL OVER THE AIR! Someone w/ a police scanner could listen to this and get all the info about you that they need to steal your identity for the price of an inexpensive scanner.
A few years back I purposely changed my license number to a computer generated number for that reason. I also have my first initial on my license instead of my first name, making it harder for identity theft to occur by scanner.

Excellent points. Glad ours aren't that way.

It dawned on me one night when I was dispatching. We had another Nosy Parker calling in asking about something they had heard on a scanner (someone they knew had been pulled over and arrested). It dawned on me that this person could have gotten all the info they needed to steal the other persons identity. That Monday I went down to my local license bureau and changed my number, explaining why I did it. I ran into the clerk at the license bureau a few weeks later. She told everyone there what I had told her and they all changed their numbers.

so we can only ask for that.

There are no items in the actual database that show the complete number.

We can't change them either, if we have them wrong, without an act of God.