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Rock_Strongo t1_izg1qbx wrote

Reply to comment by losangelestimes in I was the victim of an identity theft nightmare - and it could happen to you. AMA by losangelestimes

With the amount of places you have to enter your full SS# and the amount of people it passes through basically everyone is compromised. Once it’s out there there’s nothing you can so about it but hope you aren’t randomly selected by a thief. Not like you can request a new one.

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secoccular t1_izg61qn wrote

>Not like you can request a new one.

Are you certain about that? It's literally one of the reasons you can get a new number.

https://faq.ssa.gov/en-us/Topic/article/KA-02220

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losangelestimes OP t1_izga4qc wrote

The bar is very, very high to get assigned a new Social Security number. Knowing yours is compromised from a data breach is not enough. Even being a victim of identity theft is not enough, unless you continue to experience issues after taking a number of steps to fight it.

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turnoffthe8track t1_izgs7wq wrote

I mean, you can. You have to attempt to fix it and "continue to be disadvantaged" by having the old one, but it's a very important part of the system that you can, in fact, request a new one.

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xDulmitx t1_izhdh8s wrote

You can also guess a lot of people's SS#. They follow a formula so by knowing where and when someone was born you can get pretty close.

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