2 billion Americans’ SSN numbers hacked

[formerlyak]

Aug 15, 2024 15:45:01 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

Aug 15, 2024 15:44:02 GMT -5 rubytue said:

pixy0stix,I’m going to be the engineer here and, how can it be 2.9 billion when there are ~330 people in the US and 8 billion world wide. 1/4 of the world population has a US SSN?

I’m going to guess that it includes deceased people as well.

It does because my dad and my brother came up multiple times and they are both no longer alive.

[underwaterrhymes]

Aug 15, 2024 18:28:14 GMT -5 formerlyak said:

Aug 15, 2024 15:45:01 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

I’m going to guess that it includes deceased people as well.

It does because my dad and my brother came up multiple times and they are both no longer alive.

I just checked my stepdad and grandmother and they both did as well.

[atlas]

I'm getting so used to these breeches it is really like ho-hum now, unfortunately.

So mine is under my married name, at an address I've never lived at with who knows what phone number. I checked all states I've lived in.

My H is in there with his childhood address (parents' house still), likely their old home phone number.

@@@
Child not found.

[katfco]

Wow. All my information is out there. All my past addresses, and those of DH.

[Saudade]

Can anyone explain something?

How does freezing work if you're trying to build back your credit score? I had a....rough year last year and I'm recovering.

[macmars45]

I got no hits for H, DS or me under my maiden name or my married name. I didn't figure that would happen.

[Nonny]

Aug 15, 2024 19:19:10 GMT -5 Saudade said:

Can anyone explain something?

How does freezing work if you're trying to build back your credit score? I had a....rough year last year and I'm recovering.

It doesn't really change anything. If you are paying down debt, the on time payments are still being reported to the credit bureaus (on the flip side, late/missed payments are also still reported). 

Mostly the freeze just adds extra steps into the process of applying for credit or doing credit checks. So if you needed to apply for a loan (for a new car, or a mortgage) you'd have to unfreeze your report. You'd also have to unfreeze it if say you were changing apartments and your new landlord was going to run a credit check.

[Nonny]

No hits for me or my H in our current state. But old hits for us in the state we went to college in (all of mine are in my maiden name, and they all have either no associated birthday, or the wrong birthday).

But my H's credit is already frozen because someone tried to open up credit in his name a couple of years ago. I need to get on freezing mine.

[gummy]

Lovely. All my stuff is out there.12 addresses with 3 different last names going back to approximately 2001.

[lostrn]

Ugh. My stuff is there under my maiden name going back to 1995. And so many addresses. Nothing under my married name or any addresses after after 2009 so that's something?

[ellipses84]

Aug 15, 2024 13:10:44 GMT -5 anodyne said:

Aug 15, 2024 11:51:21 GMT -5 sillygoosegirl said:

name.

npd.pentester.com/

My maiden name comes up in my home state (with several addresses including one I never lived at). DH is coming up at a state he lived at in college. I haven’t checked every state we’ve lived in but our current state / address didn’t come up.

[rubytue]

lostrn mine also went back to the early or mid 90s. There were two addresses my parents lived at. My mom’s that I only used as a permanent address in 1993 I think. And it went up until a house we moved from in 2011 (but owned until 2020). I’m still just really weirded out that they last one, a house we bought in 2007 was my maiden name. Two years after I was married. I have never lived in this state under my maiden name. No driver license, not even a library card.

[AAM2012]

Aug 15, 2024 11:38:42 GMT -5 Patsy Baloney said:

Aug 15, 2024 11:31:21 GMT -5 kath16 said:

anyone have advice for what to do if we are in the process of applying for a mortgage? i can't freeze my credit but i don't want something to happen between now and settlement either.

awesome.

Freezes can be lifted temporarily with PIN numbers, so while annoying, it’s not impossible to have a freeze in place while going through that process.

A lot of credit cards have monitoring now - I’m able to see my info/score through those accounts. I think the advice of 2-factor authentication and actively checking in on your accounts is great, too.

This.

I’ve unfreezed mine for both a mortgage application/approval as well as for a car loan online.

Ask the company who they use for the credit check (most use 1 or 2) and you can go to their website to unfreeze.

Literally did the car loan while at the dealership in front of the sales guy within ~5 minutes, even with forgetting my pin for that credit agency and having to go through resetting it.

For our mortgage they told us when they would pull our credit report in advance and I scheduled it accordingly.

[havarti]

Aug 15, 2024 14:18:32 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

My name was already part of the OPM hack years ago. DH has had his credit frozen for a while now. I probably need to do mine. We already have monitoring through our capital one bank accounts.

My maiden name came up, but the other info was wrong. The DOB for neither of us was correct.

@@@-minor credit freezing has to be done via mail or something. I remember trying to look into it and it was too much work IMO.

@@@ OMG! You have to provide your SSN, a copy of your child’s birth certificate, and a copy of their social security card BY MAIL!!! Among other documentation. www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/requesting-a-security-freeze-for-a-minor-childs-credit-report/

[Mushe]

Holy cow. I had probably 10 matches with my maiden name, and H has about 4. Greaaaaat.

[basilosaurus]

Aug 15, 2024 15:45:01 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

Aug 15, 2024 15:44:02 GMT -5 rubytue said:

pixy0stix ,I’m going to be the engineer here and, how can it be 2.9 billion when there are ~330 people in the US and 8 billion world wide. 1/4 of the world population has a US SSN?

I’m going to guess that it includes deceased people as well.

I had the same thought. Then I remembered we used to get SSA letters for my mom who'd been dead for at least 15 years. We were even collecting her minimal death benefits. I still think the number reported is too high.

Also, SSA related and names. When I went to change my last name with marriage, I found out they had never actually updated "mom's maiden name" as a passcode despite having gone through a formal adoption about 15 years earlier and my family doing all the paperwork. My birth certificate reflects new mom but ssa was still from bio mom. So, I guess I can see that there are more names than actual living humans. Like, do I have 2 or 3 ssa accounts from birth name, adoption, married name? 

[basilosaurus]

Also, I've long considered all my data compromised. I was in the military system, a regular target, for over 15 years. I guess it doesn't phase me anymore. It definitely should

[imimahoney]

I check ny maiden name and where I used to live and my married name where I live now.

Nothing with my married name came up but my maiden name did but the info was wrong. It had me at wrong previous addresses and a wrong SSN.

My name is very uncommon so I can't imagine someone else with my first and last name was also born in my birth year.

[ssmjlm]

Aug 16, 2024 0:47:00 GMT -5 havarti said:

Aug 15, 2024 14:18:32 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

My name was already part of the OPM hack years ago. DH has had his credit frozen for a while now. I probably need to do mine. We already have monitoring through our capital one bank accounts.

My maiden name came up, but the other info was wrong. The DOB for neither of us was correct.

@@@-minor credit freezing has to be done via mail or something. I remember trying to look into it and it was too much work IMO.

@@@ OMG! You have to provide your SSN, a copy of your child’s birth certificate, and a copy of their social security card BY MAIL!!! Among other documentation. www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/requesting-a-security-freeze-for-a-minor-childs-credit-report/

Yep, which is why I haven't done it. I don't trust that stuff to be handled properly by anyone involved.

[chickadee77]

Aug 16, 2024 0:47:00 GMT -5 havarti said:

Aug 15, 2024 14:18:32 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

My name was already part of the OPM hack years ago. DH has had his credit frozen for a while now. I probably need to do mine. We already have monitoring through our capital one bank accounts.

My maiden name came up, but the other info was wrong. The DOB for neither of us was correct.

@@@-minor credit freezing has to be done via mail or something. I remember trying to look into it and it was too much work IMO.

@@@ OMG! You have to provide your SSN, a copy of your child’s birth certificate, and a copy of their social security card BY MAIL!!! Among other documentation. www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/requesting-a-security-freeze-for-a-minor-childs-credit-report/

Yeah, it's a PITA. Probably not as big of a PITA as dealing with potential theft, but yeah.

[mrsukyankee]

I wonder if someone could use my old SS# considering I'm no longer a citizen and so no longer really have access to a SS# for use in the country (other than to eventually get my social security payments, if they still exist).

[glw]

My name, DOB and SSN are on there along with every address at which I've lived. SUPER.

[bkseller13]

Aug 15, 2024 14:18:32 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

My name was already part of the OPM hack years ago. DH has had his credit frozen for a while now. I probably need to do mine. We already have monitoring through our capital one bank accounts.

My maiden name came up, but the other info was wrong. The DOB for neither of us was correct.

@@@-minor credit freezing has to be done via mail or something. I remember trying to look into it and it was too much work IMO.

I thought my DOB was wrong for a hot minute, then realized it was written in the style of the rest of the world (Day/Month, not Month/Day).  I too had nothing under my married name but plenty under my maiden name.  H has a bunch under his.  Ugh.

[ssmjlm]

Aug 16, 2024 11:11:43 GMT -5 bkseller13 said:

Aug 15, 2024 14:18:32 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

My name was already part of the OPM hack years ago. DH has had his credit frozen for a while now. I probably need to do mine. We already have monitoring through our capital one bank accounts.

My maiden name came up, but the other info was wrong. The DOB for neither of us was correct.

@@@-minor credit freezing has to be done via mail or something. I remember trying to look into it and it was too much work IMO.

I thought my DOB was wrong for a hot minute, then realized it was written in the style of the rest of the world (Day/Month, not Month/Day).  I too had nothing under my married name but plenty under my maiden name.  H has a bunch under his.  Ugh.

Nope, still wrong for me.

[Mushe]

Just showed this to H who has three hits with his parents’ old address where he hasn’t lived in 20 years, and finally counted my hits with my maiden name, which are 19!!!!!!! Holy moly. Definitely figuring out how to do a freeze this weekend.

[JayhawkGirl]

Aug 16, 2024 4:56:06 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Also, I've long considered all my data compromised. I was in the military system, a regular target, for over 15 years. I guess it doesn't phase me anymore. It definitely should

I’m here, jaded knowing I’ve been in “systems” long before the internet bc of my parent’s work. We keep our credit frozen and have never had debit cards, only credit cards. Our bank had a hard time at first understanding we didn’t want one issued at all. Just give me an old fashioned account card.

I haven’t looked us up. The link itself makes me wary

[ellipses84]

I wish you could retire your old SSN and get assigned a new one. The Gov’t would have record of both but if someone tried to use your old one for fraud it wouldn’t work.

[wanderingback]

Aug 17, 2024 10:19:00 GMT -5 JayhawkGirl said:

Aug 16, 2024 4:56:06 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Also, I've long considered all my data compromised. I was in the military system, a regular target, for over 15 years. I guess it doesn't phase me anymore. It definitely should

I’m here, jaded knowing I’ve been in “systems” long before the internet bc of my parent’s work. We keep our credit frozen and have never had debit cards, only credit cards. Our bank had a hard time at first understanding we didn’t want one issued at all. Just give me an old fashioned account card.

I haven’t looked us up. The link itself makes me wary

Is an account card just used to withdraw money from an atm but can’t be used at stores?

[fryjack2]

If my credit is locked and my married name doesn’t show up but my maiden name does, do I have to do anything? Is it fine because my current name is locked? I didn’t even think to lock my maiden name.

[JayhawkGirl]

Aug 17, 2024 15:24:46 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

Aug 17, 2024 10:19:00 GMT -5 JayhawkGirl said:

I’m here, jaded knowing I’ve been in “systems” long before the internet bc of my parent’s work. We keep our credit frozen and have never had debit cards, only credit cards. Our bank had a hard time at first understanding we didn’t want one issued at all. Just give me an old fashioned account card.

I haven’t looked us up. The link itself makes me wary

Is an account card just used to withdraw money from an atm but can’t be used at stores?

Yes. Will work at their atm to deposit/withdraw with our PIN number but can’t be used at purchasing terminals where you use debit or credit cards.