New one to me: Want the Social Security No. of a dead person?

[Bill in NC]

Social security death index is public record.

[blooz]

I've heard stories of crooks getting SS numbers of people who died in, say, the forties and reusing them for their own purposes.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

SSN's are NOT unique numbers.

One of the reasons that credit companies sometimes will not tell you who is using your SSN is that it might just be a mistake on the name.

[JoeH]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
SSN's are NOT unique numbers.

One of the reasons that credit companies sometimes will not tell you who is using your SSN is that it might just be a mistake on the name.

They are supposed to be unique, there have been very few duplicate numbers issued to two different individuals. So, sorry, your statement that they are not unique is mostly false. Also, none have been reissued once the original holder died. It will take several decades to exhaust the unused areas of the number sequence that remain.

[freeradical]

JoeH wrote:
[quote=Filliam H. Muffman]
SSN's are NOT unique numbers.

One of the reasons that credit companies sometimes will not tell you who is using your SSN is that it might just be a mistake on the name.

They are supposed to be unique, there have been very few duplicate numbers issued to two different individuals. So, sorry, your statement that they are not unique is mostly false. Also, none have been reissued once the original holder died. It will take several decades to exhaust the unused areas of the number sequence that remain.
Would you be willing to use SSN's as the primary key in a database table?

A number that you don't control.

Honestly?

[JoeH]

freeradical wrote:
[quote=JoeH]
[quote=Filliam H. Muffman]
SSN's are NOT unique numbers.

One of the reasons that credit companies sometimes will not tell you who is using your SSN is that it might just be a mistake on the name.

They are supposed to be unique, there have been very few duplicate numbers issued to two different individuals. So, sorry, your statement that they are not unique is mostly false. Also, none have been reissued once the original holder died. It will take several decades to exhaust the unused areas of the number sequence that remain.
Would you be willing to use SSN's as the primary key in a database table?

A number that you don't control.

Honestly?
That is something entirely different from being "unique", and is part of why they were not intended to be used as an ID number. That is why they are a bad idea for linking account reports by the credit agencies and for other related purposes. But still, distinct and unique except where errors were made in assigning numbers. So take your strawman and go home.

P.S. I do know the issues related to the way SS#'s are assigned that make them a bad choice for such things as a database primary key. One is that they are assigned semi-sequentially. In my own family I have run into a practical example of that since I and 6 brothers and sisters have SS#'s in sequence. That happened when my father applied for us at the same time in the '60's after the tax rules changed on interest income on guardian bank accounts. Without a SS# for the primary account names, us, he as guardian would have had to pay tax on interest earned.

[Jimmypoo]

JoeH wrote:
I do know the issues related to the way SS#'s.

:agree:

[OWC Jamie]

AlphaDog wrote:
[quote=JEBB]
AlphaDog: Thanks, I'll check it out. I started out searching for people with my last name on Google and came upon this site.

Wouldn't SS#s of dead people be useful to some bad guys, like for opening credit card accounts?

You'd be absolutely amazed if you knew how finely tuned and fast moving the flow of information is among financial institutions. After my husband died, I assumed the credit cards in my name could still be used. Well, that's not always true. I had a purchase declined just a couple of weeks after his death, because one credit card company received notification of his death and closed the account, since he was listed as the account owner. They might not be good at keeping track of some things, but they seem to know exactly who is dead and who isn't.

and yet some of thhese same institutions have no probem issuing dividends and/or restituitions to dead people. Those checks can be a major PITA to cash. :-)

[freeradical]

AAA wrote:
I was of the understanding that social security numbers are re-usable.

They're not supposed to be reused, but it does happen on occasion despite JoeH's protestations.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

JoeH wrote:
[quote=Filliam H. Muffman]
SSN's are NOT unique numbers.

One of the reasons that credit companies sometimes will not tell you who is using your SSN is that it might just be a mistake on the name.

They are supposed to be unique, there have been very few duplicate numbers issued to two different individuals. So, sorry, your statement that they are not unique is mostly false. Also, none have been reissued once the original holder died. It will take several decades to exhaust the unused areas of the number sequence that remain.
So you don't really know how numbers are assigned, right?