Posts Tagged ‘Social Security’

Let the law be your guide when protecting your child’s SSN

Friday, August 13th, 2010

Maine’s Civil Liberties Union wants parents to know they can opt out of a plan to have students identified by their Social Security numbers. Education officials say the numbers are needed to track student progress in college and on into the workforce, while MCLU representatives are concerned the policy may put students at risk for identity theft.

The MCLU has issued a statement letting parents know they still have the final say when it comes to disclosing their child’s Social Security number. The state’s Department of Education sent out letters to school districts statewide which state that school officials must inform parents that they are not required to submit their children’s numbers.

School districts in Maine are expected to begin collecting the information this fall at the beginning of the new school year.

According to privacy rights law, publicly-funded schools and those that receive federal funding must comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in order to retain their funding. One of FERPA’s provisions is that the school must obtain written consent for the release of educational records or personally identifiable information, with some exceptions. Many schools use SSNs on identification cards or distribute class rosters or grades containing SSNs. If they do so, it is a violation of FERPA.
But many schools and universities do not interpret the law in this way.

If your child’s school requires your child’s Social Security number, it is your right as a parent to inquire as to how the information will be used and secured. It is also your right to request that another number be used, to protect your child. You may need to be persistent, however, and cite the law.

If your child attends a private school, your only recourse may be to work with the school’s administration to change the policy or allow your child to use a different number as a student identifier.

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Proposed database could help prevent child ID theft

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

The theft of children’s identities is a growing segment of identity theft. The terrifying thing about this type of crime is that it often goes undetected until the child tries to apply for credit as an adult or tries to get a loan for college, and by then, the child’s credit is ruined.

The identity information of children is a hot commodity on the black market because they come without a credit report attached, which makes them ideal for identity theft. And if the thief is “lucky,” he can use the information for many years.

But the Social Security Administration and the Department of Justice have been recently issued the challenge of creating a tool for credit issuers to use to assess whether a Social Security number belongs to a minor. The database, as proposed, would contain the name, Social Security number, and month and year of birth of every child ages birth to 17 years, 10 months.

The idea was first proposed in 2005, but with the ever-increasing incidents of child identity theft, the idea has gained more traction.

The Social Security Administration’s Death Master File has been cited as a precedent for the database. The file is a list of everyone with a SSN who has passed away. It’s distributed to the three major credit reporting bureaus so that they can mark credit reports “deceased.”

But the new database won’t happen overnight. There are some legal hoops to jump through first, due to the Patriot Act. Furthermore, the database would have to be extremely secure, and available only to entities in exchange for their assurances of certain security levels and safeguards.

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ID theft among illegals a sticky wicket

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

If you use false personal information to commit fraud in Iowa, you can’t use the excuse, “I didn’t know it belonged to someone else” any longer. The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled July 14 that the excuse no longer flies, and the decision stemmed from the arrest of an illegal immigrant, Jose Abel Garcia, who was caught using a woman’s identification number in Marshall County, Iowa.

The ruling comes one year after a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court opinion that required federal prosecutors to prove that alleged identity thieves knew the stolen information belonged to a real person.

The state law differs from the federal law in that it requires prosecutors to prove only that the information belonged to another person and was used in a fraud. A “fraudulent” use requires the accused to know his use of the information was illegitimate, but does not require him to know the identification was of another person. Garcia was charged with forgery and identity theft, and was convicted of both counts. He served concurrent 45-day jail terms and was given probation. He has appealed the identity theft conviction.

Garcia was arrested in 2008 when deputies executed a search warrant on vehicles in an apartment parking lot. He gave the deputies a California identification card. Once a search on the card was run, it was found the information belonged to a California woman. Garcia admitted he had purchased the fake card from a third party. He later acknowledged he was in the U.S. illegally, and did not have a Social Security card.

Fake identification cards and Social Security cards, bearing stolen information, are often used by illegal immigrants to obtain work in the U.S. No one knows the extent of the problem, but there are some facts available.

• About 7 million illegal immigrants are using stolen Social Security numbers and paying Social Security taxes. Their payroll tax contributions may be as high as $7 billion a year.
• The contribution of those illegals to the Social Security system added about 10 percent of last year’s surplus.
• Each year, the Social Security Administration receives a very large number of W-2 forms with incorrect and sometimes fictitious Social Security numbers; the withholding taxes from these incorrect numbers are put in the “Earnings Suspense” file, which totals over $189 billion.

The Social Security Administration does notify you if your number is being used illegally by someone else and cannot resolve the problems created by such a theft, but will work with you to be sure your earnings and their records are correct.

To protect your Social Security number and other personal information, call LifeLock today. Receive 30 days free and get a 10 percent discount on enrollment with the LifeLock Promo Code “Defense.”

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