A Social Security number (SSN) is the single most important piece of government-issued identification that a United States citizen has. In fact, your Social Security number and card are issued at birth unlike with other forms of identification.
Your SSN is the most valuable piece of personal data that identity thieves can get their hands on – especially when they have the number along with your full name and address.
Even just by itself, a valid SSN can be illegally sold online or in person to others who are unable to get one on their own. For this reason, you should know how to protect your Social Security number to prevent it from getting stolen in the first place. However, your SSN could still be stolen or leaked online as the result of a data breach.
With a stolen SSN, your full name and an address, an identity thief can steal property, money or even take out loans in your name. To make matters worse, the police will come looking for you instead of the actual crooks if they commit any crimes using your identity.
As senior manager of Alkami Technology Adam Dolby points out “You can close a credit card if it is compromised but the problem is, you can’t close your SSN.”
If you discover your SSN has been stolen or misused by someone else, there are several steps you will need to take right away to minimize the damage.
Contact one of the three major credit-reporting agencies — Equifax, TransUnion, or Experian — to place a credit freeze or a fraud alert on your credit file.
To speak to Equifax, call its customer care number at 1-888-766-0008 or visit this web page(opens in new tab) to place a fraud alert. To start an Equifax credit freeze online, you’ll have to create an Equifax account, but you can do so without creating an account by calling 1-800-349-9960.
To contact Experian, call 1-888-397-3742 or go here(opens in new tab) for a fraud alert or here(opens in new tab) for a credit freeze. For TransUnion, the phone number is 1-800-680-7289; the fraud-alert link is here(opens in new tab) and the credit-freeze link is here(opens in new tab).
A credit freeze can be inconvenient, but it’s the better option. With a freeze, no potential lender can access your credit file without your approval. That can be a bother if you plan to move, open a new bank account, buy a car or switch phone carriers, but you can easily “unfreeze” your credit and then freeze it again. The freeze lasts indefinitely.
Thanks to a 2018 law, credit freezes are now free to implement, but you must contact each of the Big Three credit-reporting agencies separately to set them up.
Fraud alerts are easier to place — the agency you place one with will contact the other two — but they aren’t as useful. A fraud alert just requests that anyone pulling your credit file contact you first, but they don’t actually have to. (Here’s more about the difference between a fraud alert and a credit freeze.)
You can renew a fraud alert every year (it’s free to do so). Contact the Social Security Administration only to get a replacement card or replacement number (see below).
Tell each of the three agencies that your SSN has been stolen
They’ll give you free copies of your current credit reports. Review those reports for unfamiliar accounts and unknown inquiries from companies.
Report the theft of the Social Security number to the IRS at http://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-central(opens in new tab)
You can also call 1-800-908-4490. That will prevent tax-fraud thieves from filing tax returns in your name — and collecting your tax refund.
Report the identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission at http://www.identitytheft.gov(opens in new tab)
You can also call 1-877-IDTHEFT.
File an identity-theft report with your local police
The police report will help clear your records and your name. The report is necessary to have if you want to apply for a new Social Security number.
