My wife went to open a college-fund account for her and was told the social security # was already in use on another account. No lines of credit have been opened, but not sure about with other banks.

Apparently you can't put a credit freeze on a minor's SSN, so we need to write a letter to each of the credit bureaus explaining our situation.

Anyone had anything like this?

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My guess would be there is a mistake somewhere, I don't think someone was trying to steal the identity of a 7 year old.

In use by another account at the same financial institution? Most of the time that would be that someone either entered the number incorrectly from an account application, or the person miswrote their number on the application. Since most banks and other financial institutions do not actually look at a SS card, this may have not been noticed up until now. Put the watch on just in case, but hopefully you will get told that the situation gets corrected by the institution.

As for having this happen to me, yes several times. But so far always record keeping errors. They had no impact on me overall, but the numbers were for brothers and sisters. To explain, back in the '60's the IRS started requiring SSN's for minors on interest bearing accounts, or the interest would have to be declared and taxes paid on the parents' 1040's. So my father applied for SSN's for most of us at one time. Five or six of us got sequential numbers out of that, so one number off is usually another one of us. Every so often causes a credit report to have an error because of that, but not too often the last decade.

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Come live in arizona where there are lots of illegals, they want anyones SSN#.

>>they want anyones SSN#.

To open savings accounts??

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Years ago my bank switched my SSN with another account holder of the same name, but living 80 miles away. I don't recall exactly how I figured out there was a problem, but it was apparently a simple fix in their records, with no long-term consequences. After, I wrote the guy and he hadn't realized there was a problem and the bank hadn't notified him. We both switched banks.

The banks don't care if multiple people use the same SSN. The credit bureaus don't care either. They are both pretty good at keeping the records straight - most of the time.

Illegals will use stolen SSNs to gain employment. They won't open lines of credit which might tip off the authorized holder of the stolen SSN. They will occasionally open checking or savings accounts. Even heard of 401ks or other retirement accounts being opened.

The goal isn't to steal credit, just to appear to be eligible to hire.

Savings accounts might cause a problem if an illegal uses SSN and doesn't pay the income tax. What if that person makes an income that isn't taxed. (independent contractor) The rightful owner can be assessed the tax bill. Can turn into a big problem sorting this out. A friend works at our local hospital and they have the same people (illegals??) coming in with their same three names but in a different order all using the same SSN. WHO pays this bill? You and I with higher hospitalization. This is a bigger problem than most people realize. What about any illegal activity. Too many things are tracked or information kept using SSNs as a source. Ask anyone who has their identity stolen. Young kids are a great SSN to steal. How many people or kids check a child's credit report. I would be following though on this with the bank or authorities.

A close relative of a good friend, whose DL has been revoked due to DUI infractions, fraudulently forged my friend's signature on the pink slip so he could drive a truck he bought. He got in trouble recently for running stop signs and red lights and the cop is after my friend! The guy has been in the country illegally since he was in his 20s but he never bothers to apply for citizenship even though this 64 years old has been through three marriages, run a few businesses, owned a couple of houses and bank accounts.

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SoCal for now.

We were called in for a tax audit one year, back in the 1990s before identity theft was a widespread issue. Of all of the things my husband thought they might have been questioning about the return, he never expected they wanted to know about several thousand dollars worth of 1099 income he "failed to report." The simple answer was that one of the companies with which he did business reported someone else's income under his SS number, and the person who actually got the 1099s either didn't notice the error or didn't choose to get it corrected.

Sometimes there really are simple mistakes made, although by now that's sure not the first thing anyone thinks of.

When my grandfather was applying for Social Security benefits they told him he wasn't eligible because of his age. He was perplexed. They said that he was only 36 years old. He asked them to double check. It turned out that there was a guy in the same neighborhood, with the same name, on the same street whose SS number was almost identical to my grandfather's. There were two numbers that were inverted. My grandfather's # had 53 where the other guy's had 35 for example. It took awhile to straighten that out. No one could believe the odds of that happening. He purchased a lottery ticket on the way home.

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There should be a year round open season on Coyotes.

I know this is getting close to political but in the day of computers, one has to be careful. There are phishing scams and such that can compromise one's online security and personal identity. This is why ILLEGAL immigration and computer crimes are and will be everyones problem in the future. Yes, mistakes can be made but it is very hard to work with Social Security when problems arise. Nothing like a government job. My son happen to have his SSN on one of the disks lost in Ohio. He gets a free year of identity theft protection but a lot for just being 16. Just think twice if you thin it won't happen to you.

Hey folks as long as he only wanted to get a job, then theft was appropriate, after all he ripped
off the country when he came in ilegally so what is a little identity theft. Funny how the bank
gave out the credit but couldn't discover that the credit card belonged to a three year old little
girl.

Oh and I am sure that Jose was surly going to pay off the credit card, he only stole the childs
identity to get a job and establish credit for her as a favor, so she would have a good rating
when she grows up. Right!!!

BTW, DharmaDog -- when are you gonna be away? I think there are a few things in your house I could use
for a job, not for profit, you understand. Leave the car keys in the ignition, ok?]

I want a few spare identities---where are these talking coyotes?

I've always wanted a few extra DLs to avoid ticket problems.

Quote
lunasea
Hey folks as long as he only wanted to get a job, then theft was appropriate, after all he ripped
off the country when he came in ilegally so what is a little identity theft. Funny how the bank
gave out the credit but couldn't discover that the credit card belonged to a three year old little
girl.

Oh and I am sure that Jose was surly going to pay off the credit card, he only stole the childs
identity to get a job and establish credit for her as a favor, so she would have a good rating
when she grows up. Right!!!

BTW, DharmaDog -- when are you gonna be away? I think there are a few things in your house I could use
for a job, not for profit, you understand. Leave the car keys in the ignition, ok?]

I have no idea what you are getting at, but I believe you have inferred something from my post that I did not say or mean to communicate.

I was trying to simply state the facts without being political or stating my opinion on this issue. Don't want to get the thread bumped to the other side, which is where you will find my opinion on similar issues.

Not only do some illegals open savings accounts, checking accounts, they also get lines of credit and buy houses and cars with their tax free dollars. It is not uncommon for them to use several different SS#'s and name. for these accounts.

Bank of America is one of the banks that has made this possible. They don't care if the ID is false. But I dare you to try to cash a check there without proper ID.

Not all illegals carry all of their cash around with them. In Atlanta, they are increasingly getting robbed of their cash by other folks that resent them being here illegally. Easy targets. They are not going to report the crime.

They are all clever enough to know the ins and outs of the banking and tax and ID issues. They are also clever enough to get into this country illegally, stay, reap benefits, have tax free dollars, go back and forth to their home countries.... and never have any intention of being a legal citizen, following our laws, assimilating, or paying
taxes.

When about 20 million of the 40 million them start doing this, you will hear more and more about it.

Not all ID theft is illegals. Many folks at financial institutions, court houses, retail stores and restaurants, are happy to sell your credit card and financial info.