Has Your SSN Been Exposed?
 

You can search here.

If it has been, be sure to freeze your credit with all three agencies. It is easy and not a big deal before you are an identity theft victim.

Links to the credit agencies are listed on the page linked above. Generally, it is a good idea to freeze your credit anyway. You can always unfreeze it on demand when someone needs it, then freeze it again.

I've always avoided sites like the above. A good way for someone to get my PII would be to take advantage of fear after a publicized breach to convince me to give it to them. "Worried your SSN might have been exposed? Fill in your full name and birth date then hit Submit."

The site above might be totally legitimate but personally, I would not provide that information.

Curious what types of services others use to monitor for nefarious activity on your accounts. In addition to personal measures such as strong passwords and changing passwords, freezing credit through the three main bureaus - do you use a monitoring service or third party firm and if so who? Thanks.

Agree.

"give another site your information and hope it's legit & secure"..........pass.

Go right to the agency……..

Rather than freeze my credit cards I put a block on my SS#

That is generally a good and conservative plan.

This site only asks for a state where you have lived and the YEAR of your birth. For an identification to be unique, it would need name, city and state of birth, and the full birthdate. Here it is only asking for enough information to find possible matches, which are listed. You don't identify any of them as being yours.

FWIW. Mine was exposed, but not using my state of birth, only a state in which I previously lived. Three of the four people whose names I tried showed up.

You can open a free Credit Karma account. It will list all current credit card/loans and if inquiries were made.

Several of my credit cards and banks now offer an identity alert services so enable that feature if available.

Apparently, virtually everyone's information was disclosed.

The hacking group, which is called USDoD, said it stole the records of 2.9 billion records from National Public Data, which provides personal information to companies and private investigators doing background checks.

So safe assume your information is out there.

How do we know that site is not a scam site ?

What’s the old saying....the easiest car to steal or house to rob is the ones with the keys in it!

People....exercise some common sense, don’t unilaterally give up your SS# and personal info to anyone unless you’re 100% and have properly vetted. Do some due diligence!

2.9 billion records, not people.

You don't understand the problem. Your house has already been robbed. Your SSN is very probably exposed. You have given it to employers, insurance companies, doctors, dentists, your cell phone provider, (or most of those). You can query the link.

If/when you do, it will show you the last 2 digits of your SSN and various addresses where you have lived.

Didn’t one of credit freezer’s get hacked year or two ago?

Do yourself a favor and lock your credit with all three agencies, anyway. At your age, do you really need to open any new credit cards? If you think it's time to buy your 3rd house in The Villages, you can always unlock your credit for a day to add a new mortgage.

Quote from article corrected, thanks

I’ve used LifeLock for years. I’ve locked 5 places to protect my data, LifeLock provided 2 more places to lock. LifeLock also alerts me if my data is on the dark web. LifeLock also alerts me with every transaction executed in my brokerage accounts, and banks. It will also alert me if anybody is using my driver license #.
If I go on a trip with no internet, I lock all my brokerage accounts so no activity can occur by phone or by internet access until I call them to unlock the accounts.

bingo. !!!

Has your SSN been exposed? Do you have an SSN? Then, it's been exposed.

Unfortunately your SSN is sometimes required for certain credit purchases. Interesting to hear “ never give out your SSN” from the experts and then have them allow credit granting companies to require it. I’m just glad that we now don’t need to open any new credit. We also froze our credit and it has been years since we’ve had to temporarily unfreeze it Until a several years ago your Medicare # was your SSN. I think your military ID was your SSN (??). It’s a joke. I don’t believe that this government is doing enough to eradicate hacking and identity theft. If a perpetrator wants to steal another’s identity or life savings then perhaps we need to reclassify some of these “non-violent” crimes as capital offenses. (OK, I vented).

and originally the SS card used to say to not be used for identification. It was never meant to be used as it is. Only for government. But it is a unique number for everyone so it was easy to use.

maybe not
 

yes freeze credit but you better read these reviews before using this

Pentester Reviews | Read Customer Service Reviews of pentester.com

Interesting idea!! How is that done and has it inconvenienced you in any way?

Are you absolutely positive that the link provided to check your Social Security number isn't a PHISHING website??? I'm not.

I input information for me, my siblings, and my high school friends, and the information was mostly correct. In my brother's case, the phone numbers were out of date. You don't give them enough information for phishing.

I have purchase two cars while using Lifelock and neither time did it alert me someone was trying to obtain a car loan in my name..... I called LL and was told that not "every" creditor uses Lifelock.... So, for example, GM credit does not.... I find that mind blowing because that is why I use LL in the first place.

So, evidently, not every creditor reports to and or uses or maybe even by-passes LL..... not sure how that is possible but just to make sure I lock/freeze credit now.... was a bit of a PITA to un-do so we could buy house but it worked.....

Just a heads up. I still have a LL account but believe me... stuff gets by them!!!!!

As I understand it, it is almost impossible to change your Social Security number. I have had the same number for my entire life and thousands of people have had access to it. But, I have never froze my credit and I don't intend to. So, I guess I am a sitting duck.

Use two step verification on your accounts.

Times have changed. I remember back in college when they posted test scores by social security numbers on the professor's door.

How does one “freeze” their credit?

Credit freeze /fraud alert with county
 

Best practice is to contact credit
agencies directly and freeze credit . They will provide pin to temporarily unfreeze and refreeze . Also go on county to put a fraud alert on your title / deed to your property. Just saying

Clark Howard has a guide on his website.

Attention Required! | Cloudflare

I just got the letter from Change Healthcare regarding the largest healthcare breach in history.
They got all your info including Medicare #s.
How the ransomware attack at Change Healthcare went down: A timeline | TechCrunch

148 million were affected in the 2017 Equifax breach. Pretty bad when the credit agencies get hacked.
2017 equifax data breach - Google Search

There needs to be more accountability for these organizations to protect information.
All they offer is 2 years of free credit monitoring. (I did get $25 for the Equifax class action suit)

Yup! Never type in your SS# into ANY website.

Skip

Can someone please explain how a SSN can be used to steal money from another person?

I'm not sure how but it isn't always what you would think. I'm guessing on some level they try to get credit? That in combination with other info makes it easier?

I heard recently there are thieves somehow getting access to house titles. They don't steal the house, they take a loan out against the house. True? I don't know but it seems dishonest people are always coming up with new ways to steal.

They can take out a loan against my house, but they won't get any money from me. A lender would need to be pretty stupid to lend money to someone without doing a proper title verification.

I think more people are ripped off by these credit and title monitoring services that spread fear in people. They sell a "service" with no guarantee of outcome, or even that they will do any actual monitoring.

CoachK bought a new car at Subaru dealership. Had to give social security number for loan verification, approval. unlocked account, but had to wait for approval to relock the account. Within two days, Coachk got an email bomb. Someone used her SS number and maiden name information to buy an apple iPhone. Fedex overnight was to our house?? called Fedex at 7AM and got the delivery halted and returned to sender. Had a police report filed, but the police man didn't use the word Verizon in the report. But there had to be a Fedex driver or delivery manager in on the fraud to have the phone declared delivered and then get to the intended thief, or else the sim card was stolen out of the phone prior to delivery. Also there was an online bank account opened in Coachk's name in order to validate the purchase, etc. . . corporate loop holes. . .

Got credit on the iPhone purchase. . however, Verizon starts service automatically without verification of delivery. Got the service stopped after the first bill, but Verizon wouldn't accept the police report without the word verizon in the report, to erase the first bill.

Fine, now it takes 6 months or more to get the policeman to adjust the report, and had to use a retired cop from Coachk's employee's husband to get the policemen to actual update the report. . azzhole. .

meanwhile Verizon keeps sending the bill to collectors and we keep sending a standardized response to the collectors and they stop. . Meanwhile Verizon's fraud reporting system is also a nightmare to complete and upload. . .

So steal money, possible. I have a work colleague who have had person walk into a bank on the other side of the country and go up to the window and withdraw funds from their checking account. I don't know if they asked for any id, and if they did, what id was used, but the bank was embarrassed, and this was 10 years ago. .

Foreigners tend to figure out how to fake / represent people and events and status, and then take advantage of it with online processes. There is a lot of LLC fraud in FL with home ownership, transfers, mortgage applications and money delivery, and then the money is gone and the final LLC is a fraudulent LLC. . .

need SS / EIN numbers to do all that, and mostly foreigners. .

good luck out there, its a jungle.

The site mentioned in post does not require much information. To find out if you have been breached it requires ONLY this data:

First name
Last name
State
Year of birth

It will then provides a list all of the data that meets this criteria including the last 4 digits of the associated social security data.

I understand the skepticism, but providing a name/state/year of birth is nothing to worry about. In fact most people know enough about their friends that they could look up if you have been exposed.

You don't have to be a sitting duck. Here is how it works. I find your name, SSN, previous address, birthdate online. Apply for a loan or credit in a different state. Buy stuff. Never pay for it.

Why does that work? Because, you are in state A. The police pretty much won't get stuff from the bank or credit company in state B.

Credit freeze prevents that from happening. The credit company won't be able to verify your data from somebody else, because the reporting company will deny it. Then the offender may get arrested on the spot. Probably not. But at least you won't spend hours reporting and documenting that it was not you!

Why do you think I know about this? :)