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this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024
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Privacy
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I keep reading "social security number", but still don't understand why it's possible to steal a person's identity with their SSN. Is that all that's required for identification? Some number?
Basically. It wasn't meant to act as an identification, but people kept using it that way (probably because every citizen gets one at birth, so it's the easiest proof of citizenship).
It's a key component. You need other information, but the SSN is supposed to be secret.
Getting names, emails, addresses, etc is pretty available. If you can link those up + an SSN you can open accounts pretty easily
Damn... that seems like a pretty bad system. Have there not been attempts to remedy that?
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