From: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 10:01:38 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Validating SSNs
In-Reply-To: <v01540b09aeaff516ed6d@[172.17.1.61]>
Message-ID: <v03007801aeb10f2b94a1@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 4:18 PM -0600 11/13/96, Rick Smith wrote:

>My guess is that the bank sticks the SSN in a report to the IRS and the
>bank is happy with the SSN as long as the IRS doesn't complain about it.
>
>Now, does the IRS check? I suspect that they don't, either. Their objective
>is to look for "matches" with SSNs that show up on filed tax forms, since
>they want to verify the data on the tax form. Given the behavior of every
>other large database I've ever seen, I'd guess that there would be a huge
>number of SSNs that don't in fact associate with tax forms. If someone High
>Up hasn't decreed that they should chase such things down (and allocated
>heaps of money to do it), they'll ignore the mismatches.
>
>This seems consistent with the reports of people who use bogus SSNs for
>decades at a time.

Indeed, I protected my privacy decades ago by discarding my issued SSN and
substituting a different one. This "phony SSN" is what I use on my tax
returns, my credit cards, and for my employers.

Ha! None of them know that this is not my True Social Security Number!

By this I protect my privacy.


--Tim May

"The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned IBM
that the National Security Agency would try to twist their technology."
[NYT, 1996-10-02]
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."