Prevent Scammers From Figuring Out Your Social Security Number

I came across an excellent article that explains how easy it is for scammers to decode your Social Security number.  I always wondered how they did this.

Carnegie Mellon University researchers only need two pieces of information to guess SSNs in a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  The study implies that knowledge of your hometown and your birth date allows scammers to discover most of, if not all, of the nine digits of your Social Security number.

$50 can buy your SSN from dozens of websites used by private investigators, businesses conducting credit checks, and savvy scammers who know your name, birth date, and current address.

And if the scammer doesn’t have the information, Alessandor Acquisti, the study’s lead researcher, says it is easy to find.  Acquistis states, “There are many websites and database where one can access the birth dates of thousands of people easily and cheaply.” 

Public databases and voter registration lists include this information.  Over the years the first three digits of the SSN have been an “area number”.   The fourth and fifth has been a “group number” and the last four digits which are more difficult to guess are issued sequentially depending on how long the Social Security application took to process.

Today’s highest risk group for decoding are those born since 1988 because that is the year the Social Security Administration began to order SSNs for newborns and older children who did not already have a SSN.  The SSA plans to start a more arbitrarily process of assigning SSNs next year.

For those who use social networking websites such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. or have online accounts, here are four easy ways to help prevent potential problems:

Do not use your birth date or any part of your SSN as a password.

Do not post any personal information such as your birth date, hometown and location of your high school.

If you post obituaries of loved ones, exclude hometowns and other personal information, as deceased are frequent targets.

Stay away from online security questions that ask for your hometown.

Source:  Sid Kirchheimer   AARPBULLETINtoday