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163 Comments
- svivian, on 07/07/2009, -0/+179"000-00-0002. Damn Roosevelt."
/mr burns - inactive, on 07/07/2009, -5/+97That's why we all need RF collars. Perhaps an anal probe to buy a slurpy is in order at this point. ***** fingerprinting people...I want to be able whip my thing out on the counter and know my cash is secure. It`s called dickprinting technology....learn up!
- doctechnical, on 07/07/2009, -1/+83Place of birth (or at least place of application) has been encoded in the SSN since the dawn of dirt: http://people.howstuffworks.com/social-security-nu ...
My original SSN card had the words "NOT TO BE USED FOR IDENTIFICATION" printed on it.
Please keep this in mind the next the government says "Oh, we'd never do THAT. No. Never." - mysticalone, on 07/07/2009, -3/+85No one verifies SSN, so companies give out credit cards, home loans. Then when you turn 18 and try to open ur bank account, you find out some fat bitch has ***** up ur credit history.
- Jerryrad, on 07/07/2009, -15/+97Thank God I'm an illegal immigrant. You Americans are screwed.
- DirtyVicar, on 07/07/2009, -11/+86This only works if your birthday is 7/4/1776, because the SSN is either "1" or "2".
- Catgofire, on 07/07/2009, -1/+71It's always the fat bitches...
- ak47ak47, on 07/07/2009, -13/+73GTFO then
- D3IM0S, on 07/06/2009, -3/+52Where's my tinfoil hat?
- AriaNoelle, on 07/07/2009, -1/+41This isn't new information. An old semi-friend of mine went with a few friends to get SSNs when they were teens so they could get jobs, and their SSNs were all in order with the first five being the exact same as they were same location and time, and the last four "random" numbers were the next four available, and so were all in numercal order. Only now the SSA tried to get them assigned right after birth. I thought this was common knowledge.
- 44Bigs, on 07/07/2009, -2/+34Can anybody explain to me what the big deal is with SSN's in the States?
Here in the Netherlands, my SSN's not really a secret and anytime I give it out to someone I have to show my ID to verify that the SSN is actually mine. - wTheOnew, on 07/07/2009, -1/+31When someone can destroy my life by basically just knowing my birthday and where I was born there is something wrong with the system. This in addition to the fact that the whole credit reporting system is pretty broken in its own right.
- DemDude, on 07/07/2009, -1/+31Not so fast ak47ak47, don't forget that you're legally obliged to offer -both- of the following two options:
- *****
- GTFO
Options are exclusive*
*Some exceptions may apply (fat chicks, ladies over 40, ...). - Culyt, on 07/07/2009, -1/+30Or he could just steal your SSN ☺
- inactive, on 07/07/2009, -0/+28I don't know if they make wang-readers small enough for you though...
- jawbreaker4fs, on 07/06/2009, -3/+26You don't have to be a citizen to have a social security number.
- sexybobo, on 07/07/2009, -0/+22Hate to break it to you but you cant use laminated SS Cards all financial organizations are told not to accept them and it says so on the back of the card.
- SquidProQuo, on 07/07/2009, -1/+23...or the concept that you can't own people.
- tonytroz, on 07/07/2009, -2/+23Digg has this cool feature where if you type in your SSN it appears as ***-**-**** to everyone else, it's awesome!
- lexbaby, on 07/07/2009, -0/+21The problem is that a SSN was never intended to be an identifier outside of Social Security. It was simply your "account number" with SS when it was time to collect retirement or disability payments. Because it was unique, everyone else just started to use it. There were never any protections, procedures, rules, etc. to protect against identity theft.
- jnisme, on 07/07/2009, -0/+21In the olden days, our parents didn't need to provide proof of us on their taxes. I remember when it was first required to provide SSN for dependents, the news was aflutter with stories about how the population magically dropped.
- aychseven, on 07/07/2009, -2/+22first, computers are not always correct. second, anyone who ends a post with "Discuss." is a douche bag.
- TVarmy, on 07/07/2009, -0/+20Ever since the accident at the meat packing plant, our friend Jimmy was only half the man he was before :(
- Ne007, on 07/07/2009, -1/+19************** /\***********
************* / ~\*********
************ / ~~ \*********
************/_____\ *******
_________( O_o )_________ - EnTaroTassadar, on 07/07/2009, -0/+17Boy, getting declined by the pretty clerk for "Insufficient Balance" is going to be really awkward.
- skinny01, on 07/07/2009, -1/+17<:)
- fajitamelt, on 07/07/2009, -1/+17Why was he just a semi-friend?
- tightscrummy, on 07/07/2009, -0/+14Cool, it works with credit card numbers and ATM pins too.
- inactive, on 07/07/2009, -0/+14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_numbe ...
Pretty much an Identifier for people living legally in the states. Used a lot for getting credit cards, opening accounts, applying for jobs, college, and a lot of other uses. Problem is, if someone gets a hold of it and your personal info, they can do stuff in your name and screw over your credit among other things. This is whats usually called Identity Theft. Since getting your personal info (name, address, phone, ect) is much easier, it's usually a good idea for most to keep their SSN secure. - WhiskeyLemur, on 07/07/2009, -0/+14You gen an SSN when you immigrate legally, but you can't become a citizen for several years.... So jawbreaker is entirely correct: you don't need to be a citizen to have an SSN; you just need to be here legally.
- WhiskeyLemur, on 07/07/2009, -0/+13It's the same if you immigrate with a family - my parents, brother and I all have consecutive SSNs. Good times.
- s1ckmate, on 07/07/2009, -1/+13Does that not sound ***** up to you?
Why don't they just use birth certificates + photo ID for identification? I'm sure it would save millions of dollars lost from identity theft. - sexybobo, on 07/07/2009, -1/+12How about thise in stead
Pay Taxes or
GTFO - bben46, on 07/07/2009, -0/+11And then there are those like myself who got their SSN in a completely different state than the one where they were born. Now you have the problem of guessing which of the seven states I have lived in is the one where I received my SSN. And the problem of guessing which seven states those were to even begin to narrow it down.
Even that dosn't work as my SSN, like nearly everyone else is recorded in so many databases that I believe if someone wanted it they could probably get it. - Ravatar, on 07/07/2009, -0/+11He said required. Nobody is required to have a bank account, and therefore no person required to give their SSN to a bank.
- vbullinger, on 07/07/2009, -2/+13@ak47ak47: you are obviously a racist
/s - dremspider, on 07/07/2009, -0/+11578-58-4367, did that work?
- ThantiK, on 07/07/2009, -1/+11The last 4 of your social security number are actually the most important, it's the first two numbers that are encoded based on location/time of birth - Those 3 things all put together can mean SSN compromise. If someone has your last 4, Date/City of birth, they can ***** you up.
It's actually the only numbers of the SSN that companies DON'T hide too...go figure. - doctechnical, on 07/07/2009, -2/+12You ever try opening a bank account without a sosh?
- Markp487, on 07/07/2009, -0/+9Not THAT startling.
Assuming the stats they gave were national averages:
If you are under 21 years old they have a .044% chance of guessing your ssn.
If you are over 21 years old they have a .007% chance. - Thermopolis, on 07/07/2009, -0/+9While this is all well and good, the underlying issue is with credit reporting agencies. Their databases are being used to decide people's lives and they have no incentive to ensure the data is accurate. They record and report anything. It is up to you to prove them wrong. Also, just as the credit industry rely on these faulty reports they also rely on a system (SSN) that was not designed to keep their records in order. It is the reliance on this one number by these agencies that has created these criminal enterprises.
- ObeseSnake, on 07/07/2009, -3/+12Hey it guessed my social security number, 457-55-5462, on the first try! Cool!
- mcprogrammer, on 07/07/2009, -0/+8@powatom, that's not a limitation of computers, it's a "limitation" of the IEE754 floating point representation (or any other binary floating point format). It's also a limitation in 99% of languages, not just ECMAScript. The real problem is converting between base 10 and base 2. If you store numbers in base 10 (with each digit in base 2, obviously) you don't have that problem.
There is also no difference between 32bit and 64bit in how "correct" they can calculate anything unless you need >4GB to calculate it. Both generally use 64-bit floating point numbers (just like your JavaScript/ECMAScript example), and can use arbitrarily large/precise numbers with a library. - ThantiK, on 07/07/2009, -0/+8This has nothing to do with science.
- SScottAZ, on 07/07/2009, -0/+8How is the dishnetwork salesman supposed to check your photo ID over the phone?
- govtdoesnotwork, on 07/07/2009, -2/+10I refuse to laminate mine, because it's old enough to say: "For Social Security and Tax Purposes -- Not For Identification" and that phrase, these days, carries substantial humor-value for libertarians like me. Ok, maybe I have a weird sense of humor...
- joe122370, on 07/07/2009, -0/+7yes it's invisible to me
- bosoxrock, on 07/07/2009, -1/+8thank god there wasn't social security in 1776. we'd have been bankrupt over a hundred years ago instead of just approaching it now!
- esc27, on 07/07/2009, -0/+7I figured this out a long time ago. Which is why I always cringe when asked to verify my identity by providing the last 4 digits of my SSN. People act like it is safe because it isn't the whole number, but I think it is a huge social engineering attack just waiting to happen. Fake phone company(or whatever) calls asking for confirmation, gets your last four digits and maybe even a good guess abut when/where you were born. Runs the scan on several hundred people, easily guesses a few dozen SSNs.
- TVarmy, on 07/07/2009, -0/+6No offense, but the IRS workers have a boring and long job. I'm sure they'd be thrilled if they got a Polaroid of a nude girl instead of taxes a few times a day.
So, I propose the new tax plan be: Tax, *****, or GTFO. It makes more sense than Huckabee's plan, at least. -
Show 51 - 100 of 169 discussions
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