I bought a new shredder today which does it all: cross-cut paper, disc media, and credit cards. As I was putting it through its inaugeral paces I glanced at the actual paper I was shredding. I noticed one of those periodic mailings from the Social Security Administation which tells you how much you’ve contributed over the years and what you’ll get at retirement (well, maybe get).

Fortunately the SSA doesn’t print your entire Social Security Number but they do print the last four digits. Does this strike you being completely moronic or is it just me?

Usually the last four digits are used to confirm your identity when calling Customer Service for your credit card, the bank, whatever. So the SSA is almost giving away access to your personal accounts. Here’s a scenario to demonstrate why this is dangerous:

John Doe shreds his bank statements, old credit card statements, etc. He even shreds the credit card solicitations he receives but he doesn’t shred the envelopes they’re sent in. Uh-oh.

Let’s say someone is dumpster diving in John’s neighborhood. They go through John’s trash one day and can’t make out a single bit of the shredded material but notice envelopes from American Express and Citibank.

The ID thief now knows John’s name and address since he’s diving the dumpster. Those envelopes have tipped him off that John might have a Citibank card since Citi sends that crap out to all of their customers.

All it takes is one peek at John’s SSA statement with the last four digits and the ID thief has everything he needs to impersonate him. Maybe he doesn’t know John’s full SSN or date of birth but that’s rarely asked when calling Customer Service. It’s those last four digits in the SSN which are key.

Am I the only person who realizes how inappropriate it is for the SSA to include even a single digit of the SSN in their mailings?

Related posts:

• Forget what you know about bank checks
• Yahoo Go’s identity crisis: Windows-only but wants to look Mac
• Catching up from Dallas
• Creative Japanese filing system instead of piles of paper

Trackback URI | Comments RSS