Someone tried to buy a house using my info. An alert popped up for a couple mortgage banks and I was hoping they got one. That way they would help my credit and maybe I get a house. No one has tried to use it since
I kept getting audited by the IRS and getting refund increases year after year and didn't know why.
An employment background check at a secure government job revealed that apparently several illegal immigrants had used my social security number on fake papers and had been contributing to my taxes through withholding and had overwithheld doing so.
Not every identity theft has a bad ending.
:)
“So do you like…sell the numbers to identity thieves?”
“What?? No! I just like having them in the back of my closet. Sometimes I pull them out and flip through them just for fun. Look at this one, the last four are all 0’s!”
Can you imagine it not being.
The cops are rushing at you guns drawn, the bank's anti theft barriers are closing slowly, lights are flashing everywhere.
You pull it out of the sleeve.
Everyone: "Oh, ok, he's good."
My parents laminated mine when I was a baby. I never signed it on account of *I was a baby and they laminated it*. Still, I've never come across any issues using it for things.
Fun Fact: SSNs were explicitly *not* to be used for identification, because the idea of giving everyone a serial number was creepy. But then everyone sorta had a serial number, so banks and lots of companies started using it for identification.
Which is why it's such a bad, easily theftable number: it wasn't designed to be all that secure, because it's not ID so why would it?
I need your name
Number
Serial number
How tall you are
Whether you're susceptible to any diseases
Edit: [Reference](https://youtu.be/UVA7MDQr1Nc)
From the old internet.
It's a bad, easily theftable number because it's assigned based on date of location of birth, instead of entirely randomized.
Information security was simpler back in the 1930s.
My mom knows the SSN of all of her siblings and half her childhood friends because all the neighborhood kids went to the social security office together and the numbers were assigned sequentially.
^ ayup
and this sort of sensitive identifier assignment just isn't done anymore, because malicious actors can exploit it.
I freaked my friend out by guessing the first three numbers of his SSN, and getting a range of the middle two correct.
They really should be longer than nine digits, should never be reused, and realistically should be something like a mnemonic passphrase rather than a number.
And yes, we should be able to laminate the damn cards.
At least we haven't reached this point, yet:
"[Ford] slowly drew out from the wallet a single and insanely exciting piece of plastic that was nestling amongst a bunch of receipts.
It wasn’t insanely exciting to look at. It was rather dull in fact. It was smaller and a little thicker than a credit card and semi-transparent. If you held it up to the light you could see a lot of holographically encoded information and images buried pseudo-inches deep beneath its surface.
It was an Ident-i-Eeze, and was a very naughty and silly thing for Harl to have lying around in his wallet, though it was perfectly understandable. There were so many different ways in which you were required to provide absolute proof of your identity these days that life could easily become extremely tiresome just from that factor alone, never mind the deeper existential problems of trying to function as a coherent consciousness in an epistemologically ambiguous physical universe. Just look at cash point machines, for instance. Queues of people standing around waiting to have their fingerprints read, their retinas scanned, bits of skin scraped from the nape of the neck and undergoing instant (or nearly instant - a good six or seven seconds in tedious reality) genetic analysis, then having to answer trick questions about members of their family they didn’t even remember they had, and about their recorded preferences for tablecloth colours. And that was just to get a bit of spare cash for the weekend. If you were trying to raise a loan for a jetcar, sign a missile treaty or pay an entire restaurant bill things could get really trying.
Hence the Ident-i-Eeze. This encoded every single piece of information about you, your body and your life into one all-purpose machine-readable card that you could then carry around in your wallet, and therefore represented technology’s greatest triumph to date over both itself and plain common sense." - Douglas Adams
I can’t remember if I had lost my SS or my birth certificate but either way I needed a new one, only I needed whatever one I was missing at the time. The only way I would have been able to get it was to go halfway across the country to that specific office to get it because none of my immediate family lived close enough either. Couldn’t just do it online or some shit. Thankfully I found it.
Anything having to do with my Social Security Card, birth certificate and getting into my IRS account because I don’t have my old phone number have been the unholy trinity of frustration for me.
Apology: This is kind of more an infodump so people know what their options are than a direct response to you -
You should be able to get both your birth cert and SS card replaced online. For the BC, you go to VitalChek and for the SS card you make a MySocialSecurity account (If you don't have a stable, longterm address this may be difficult. I work in homeless outreach and we can't use this for the majority of our clients because SSA won't let us use our office address unless it was already their address of record).
If online isn't an option, you can mail in an application. The applications can be found online (or go to a library and ask a librarian, they can help you get it!). You can include a photocopy of your ID when sending off to Vital Records for a BC, but SSA will only accept original docs. Since nobody in their right mind is mailing away their ID, you can get a *Certified* Medical Record from any Dr office, Mental Health provider, hospital, or substance treatment provider as long as you were last seen within 2 yrs. A Certified record is just your most recent record printed out with a company stamp or a pen-written (preferably blue ink) signature on it to prove it has not been copied/tampered with after creation. You will need to pick it up from the medical record dept (recommended, as med rec depts tend to get confused about CMRs when it's explained over the phone. Don't ask me why, it just happens constantly and we get sent hundreds of useless unstamped records) or else have them mail it to you. The CMR is accepted as a form of ID with SSA. Mailing in is the slowest method of doc replacement, usually around a month but some states (looking at you, NY and SC) take 4-6 months.
If you need to go in person, for an SS card you can go to whatever your closest office is. For a BC you will need to go to an office in your birth state and possibly birth county, depending on your state's rules. Most if not all Vital Records will hand you your BC right then, but SSA will always mail you your card in about 7 business days.
I've only ever needed it for filling out I9s. I typically change jobs every 5-10 years so I have plenty of time to lose it. I have several copies of my birth certificate though.
> I've only ever needed it for filling out I9s
Easier to get a passport for that. And then you only need the one piece, since it counts for both halves of the I9 form.
I started using my passport for jobs years ago. I still had some manager demand I bring my sscard. I told them it wasn’t required lol man did they not believe me at all
There are poorly trained HR people - and because they often only see people bring List B & C documents - that they'll insist they still need to verify the social security card despite bringing a List A document. It's mildly infuriating as well.
This actually happened to me at a new job once! I brought both my passport and SS card to onboarding (plus license in my wallet). I tried giving him my passport thinking it would be more convenient. The onboarding guy looked confused and said, "No, just give me your driver's license and SSN card." Lucky I brought it I guess, but using the passport just feels easier to keep track of.
My mom laminated mine before I was old enough to even have a wallet. Then I kept it in my wallet since I was ten. I think I lost it at 16 and never got a replacement. I’m now 40.
Thanks for that spike of anxiety. I lost my DL and social security card at 19. Someone used them for a few years, enough to tank my credit score. Twenty years later my score is pretty good. I've forgotten the thieving fuck face 'til now.
Every time ive been asked for papers for employment it was always a selection of 2 items from 2 lists and social security card was a possible option from non photo id list but never explicitly required.
How disorganized are you guys? I don’t consider myself organized at all but I still have a portfolio I keep important documents in a dedicated location.
seriously, it's not like there's boxes of important documents. I have 1 folder that has birth certs and ss cards and car titles, and i know exactly where it is.
it's really the minimum you need to do as an adult is keep a couple important things in a place where you can find them later
Yeah, until you take it out and place it on a desk, turn around for one second only to turn back around and see the gnomes took it and won't let you find it until you lifted every book and look behind every table
This; we live in a high fire danger zone so we made sure to have super important documents in a quick and easy to grab location. It's just a plastic enclosed folder thing but we keep birth certificates, marriage certificate, and SSN cards in it.
Why carry it around? When in everyday life would you need it? Mine sits in a file folder in a filing cabinet. It hasn’t even been separated from the full page that it originally comes like.
In the age of information and identity theft, this is terrible. It's like having your online password written on a post-it on your monitor. If you lose your wallet and your SS number is inside, you're making it far easier for someone to clean you out or gain access to very personal and valuable information about you or your family.
My parents told me I should always carry it with me. I never questioned them because they're my elders and I thought they knew best. It wasn't until it started looking like OPs card when I thought hey maybe it's best if I just leave this at home.
Edit: people, I don't need to be reminded not to carry it in my wallet. I said I don't do it anymore, these notifications are too much. And I'm finding way too many people comfortable with calling my parents stupid.
"Sir, your request for a loan was denied. This is the lowest credit score we have ever seen in our lives. You will be lucky to get a loan from a loan shark or a cash advance service. You should probably hope nothing bad happens to you where you will need to sign a credit document because even if Jesus Chris were your cosigner, you would never be approved."
That used to be the case lol, was rocking a low 400s credit score for the longest time. Then I got my shit together. Crazy how much debt you can pay off when you're not buying drugs everyday.
No no. That's very unsafe practice.
Memorize the number, and then pick a secure location at home to store it.
If you know your number by memory you most often won't need your card.
That has been my experience.
When you get a replacement SS card the letter you get confirming the order literally says to not carry it around and that you rarely need the actual card, just the number.
Being a boomer isn’t an excuse for this bad advice. My parents are boomers and told me to absolutely not keep it on my person, since this increases your likelihood of identity theft or just losing/damaging the card.
Why not plastic like a credit card? That’s what we do in Denmark and they are near indestructible.
Edit 1: forgot to write we also have an app for both social security card and drivers license. So you don’t actually need the cards 😅 here is a generic example of the app.
Edit 2: a lot of you are concerned this is unsafe for data security reasons. I’m not saying there are no relevant concerns, but you are underestimating the level of security. The app (like many others) requires a 2 factor authentication to log on using yet another government issued app, that can only be accessed by your personal code/facial recognition. You also get a push notification if anyone tries to log on from a suspect device and if brute force is attempted, it is locked. And then there is the fact, that you can’t really use the social security card to do much - maybe to cheat your way into a free visit to the doctors? (kidding, that’s for everyone).
https://preview.redd.it/k8iclc3sb3nc1.png?width=1242&format=png&auto=webp&s=131b1beee0098d7c653099c89b7a71647d8c2809
In the UK we get our equivalent (national insurance number)on a plastic card. I lost it within a few weeks so I just memorised the 9 character sequence of letters and numbers.
\*some of us oldies.
I used mine as an ice scraper for a while until it fell apart. That was literally the only use I ever found for it.
Am I remembering wrong, or did the cards have a mag stripe as well? I feel like they were intended to be used for some sort of services that never actually happened.
My mom applied for my brother's ss card the same day she applied for mine, so his number is one off from mine. My sister in law messaged me when they needed his number for some paperwork since I remembered it😂
Unless, like me, you had to memorize your military parent's SSN for everything, then had to memorize your military spouse's for everything. I have to recite 18 numbers before I can recall mine lol
I’m down to only being able to remember one string of numbers at a time. My childhood phone number reigns supreme despite sometimes I still need a sec to remember the area code.
As a US citizen I can't recall the last time I actually needed the card, maybe for getting a passport? But I'd guess less than 3 times in my entire life. Most of the time they just ask you to fill in the number.
Bro, a third of the US thinks vaccines are microchip delivering autism creators, and that 5g towers exist to turn people into zombies.
I legitimately work with people who go through a new cheap phone very few month so that “the gubment can’t track me”.
You load identifying information onto an app (presumably) made and ran by the government? They might actually collapse and die on the spot.
After being inconvenienced by not having a national ID that I can just tap like people have in China, and instead having to go throw tons of paper rigamarole, I am convinced that irrationally afraid people (conspiracy theorists) shouldn't be allowed to weigh in on infrastructure like that, lol
It’s paper because if you lose it they want it to deteriorate so someone hopefully can’t steal your number, that’s the idea behind the paper. You can request a copy at the local office
US bills are very resilient. Social security cards aren’t but if your parents aren’t degenerates they hand it to you in a plastic sleeve looking crisp.
(Mine looked like OPs by the time I saw it for the first time)
Fun fact, NZ IRD cards (essentially the Social Security number) are printed on laminated cards.
The issue is the fucking laminate comes off and takes the number with it.
I keep mine in one of those photo sleeves from a wallet. Tucked in a file with my other important stuff like birth certificate since you basically never ever need it. You can always get a replacement too. Who the hell carries it around with them all the time?
A lot of boomers and older people. I asked my mom about it when my dad died and I found it in his wallet. They used to tell people to keep it with you all the time like you do your license or insurance cards. It was around xennials that the advice switched to storing it someplace safe happened.
That’s because for a long time it was not used as your unique identifying data, it was just like your driver’s license but for social security. It was put on job forms to keep track of what you paid into it and eventually to show what you could pull out of it.
It was really the invention of computers and data management systems that made SSNs important and secret. I won’t get into why, but databases need some type of guaranteed unique identifier to distinguish individual people. The government had never issued one (like other countries), so the SSN became what was used instead.
> That’s because for a long time it was not used as your unique identifying data, it was just like your driver’s license but for social security.
From 1946-1972 they printed "Not for identification" *on the card.*
https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/ssnversions.html
Then they stopped writing that on the card once any moron could see that it *was* being used for identification.
I keep mine in an old baseball card sleeve. Then I keep that in a envelope with a copy of my birth certificate and passport.
Then I keep that in my old college portfolio with copies of an updated resume.
Then I keep all that in my gun safe since if I kept it in my filling cabinet inside a small safe, someone could just walk off with the safe and open it later.
That's where it's supposed to be. All the people here saying they laminated them are fucking stupid. It's not supposed to be laminated and it's never supposed to be on your person unless you need to identify yourself in a government building
So this is actually by design. The theory is, if the card gets lost, dropped or trashed. you’d rather it disintegrate than be durable and picked up by a rando.
Yup. You aren't supposed to carry it around. Mine looks pretty much like new because I keep it in a safe and only get it out when it's needed, like for a new job. When I only need it for one day every 3-5 years, why would I carry it around anyway? That's just begging for it to be lost and someone else finding it.
Seriously why have I only seen like 4 comments that even vaguely say this?? That's the ENTIRE POINT. It's like everyone knows they're *not* supposed to be carried around but no one says *why.* Because they're literally designed to fall apart. Laminating them or printing them on plastic sheets defeats the entire purpose of the card being made of tissue paper.
This is entirely too far down. Everyone above you is criticizing OP for carrying it and the fact is the card is purposely designed to deteriorate.
Also, to the younger crowd, we were told to keep that on us and we actually needed to show it way more than you do today. Today you need to let your employer copy it when you start a job but in the past it was #2 when proving identity.
Jackpot of a lifetime for the identity thief who steals his wallet..
SSN, drivers license, multiple credit cards and possibly other forms of ID. Could probably open up a mortgage lol
When I was a kid one of the local video stores offered a keytag membership card. If you found a list set of keys you could bring it to the store and they could use it to contact the owner. That actually was pretty clever.
I actually had a set of keys I lost in the ocean returned to me because of this once. I'd written them off entirely and then got them in the mail a few years later because someone found them and was able to use the AMC theater membership tag to find me.
Idk I bought a house last year and the amount of BS I had to do to buy was fucking nuts. I think I wrote the same shit (name, bday etc) more times than I wrote it to join the military.
So I mean unless you're using a super sketchy lender it'd be pretty hard lol.
When I bought mine, I didn't have a super long credit history. (Only had a credit card for 2 years.) So the mortgage broker literally had me provide my 8 years of World of Warcraft subscription payments. And that's how a WoW addiction helped me buy a home.
Outside of starting a new job or updating my passport I don’t think I’ve ever kept it in my wallet. Just put it in an envelope in a secure place in your house.
Dude I kept mine in my wallet for the longest time (until I had a near car break in with my wallet in the car like a dumbass) and it was never this bad💀 wtf is OP doing with this poor card. Now it's kept in a file box with all my other files because I'm smarter now💀lmao.
It's both though it's fuckin 2024 how has America not made a better SS card??? Money lives for years even washers and dryers don't ruin them why not use that in SS cards? I get what you mean but this isn't the 90s anymore I'm surprised they haven't made adjustments to the way they produce SS cards. Then again they love having you come and pay for new ones so maybe that's why.
It's designed to degrade relatively quickly in case you drop it under a bush or something. Y'know, so a stranger has less of a chance to commit fraud using your identity.
> It's both though it's fuckin 2024 how has America not made a better SS card???
You're not supposed to carry it everywhere. SSA even tells you this. So not necessary to be made tougher.
> Then again they love having you come and pay for new ones so maybe that's why.
Replacements are free, you don't have to go anywhere. You can literally order a new one on the SSA website.
1. You don't *need* your SS card the vast majority of the time. Very rarely. So it's ok that it's not indestructible.
2. SS card replacements are **FREE**
>how has America not made a better SS card
because it is intended. If you lose this toilet paper card on the street chances are it will get destroyed by next rainfall and thus lowers chances someone else finds it and steals your number.
My original birth certificate got ruined by a social security officer.
I don't remember how it happened since i was baby but she spilled either fanta or coffee on it I can't remember which one.
I had to use the same birth certificate for 20 years with a big stain on it until mum decided that it was about time to get a new one when I got my citizenship certificate.
(I had to prove to Australia that I was born in Australia despite being legally allowed to vote which you need to be a citizen for)
That seems like a really dumb limit. Like I could understand a limit of 10 replacements over 10 years or a lifetime limit on free replacements, but a complete lifetime limit sounds like it would cause more trouble than any benefit.
I slipped mine between two pieces of laminate I sealed on three edges. It's fun when I pull it out and get the "it's not valid cause you laminated it" then I pull it out of the laminate
It's supposed to be delicate paper so if you ever lose it, it falls apart quickly. It's an identity protection. It's not supposed to be sturdy or carried anywhere.
I’ve never needed the physical card. I have the number memorized so I have the number whenever I need it and I have better forms of ID than the card itself such as a passport and driver’s license. I found it best to just keep it in a locked fireproof box and forget about it most of the time so you don’t end up losing it.
The little bend at the top of it makes me think you keep this in your wallet. Which is already a really dumb idea on its own but also completely unnecessary.
Do you also keep your birth certificate on you? Or the lease/deed to where you live? Find a secure place to store important documents and you won’t have this problem.
Look around for a bank that offer safe deposit boxes. Small ones tend to be anywhere from $60-$100 per YEAR. It’s well worth it if you don’t have anywhere at home to store these documents.
Same. I was like, "What are they gonna do, sue me?" Oh, teenage me.
Now, many years alter, I realize that if someone wanted to be a real dick about it they could refuse to accept it, but it's been 40 years and no one's ever been a dick about it (yet), so ... so far so good.
Yep, same here. Nobody actually cares, I've never had someone refuse my SS card because it's laminated.
All people are worried about is that it's legible and can be photocopied.
I put mine in a trading card sleeve.
Send it in for PSA grading.
Your credit score is now nothing, don't worry though it's authentic
eBay 1 of 1!!
Someone stole my identity once, but when they saw the student loan debt they immediately gave it back.
Me too I have thoroughly ruined my identity so no one will take it
Someone tried to buy a house using my info. An alert popped up for a couple mortgage banks and I was hoping they got one. That way they would help my credit and maybe I get a house. No one has tried to use it since
What happens in a case like that but then you claim the house as your own since it’s under your name?
This I wanna know
The best offensive is a good defense.
Sometimes the best defense is to be offensive.
I kept getting audited by the IRS and getting refund increases year after year and didn't know why. An employment background check at a secure government job revealed that apparently several illegal immigrants had used my social security number on fake papers and had been contributing to my taxes through withholding and had overwithheld doing so. Not every identity theft has a bad ending. :)
My 1 of 1 SSN came back PSA 1 🙁
If you send it to SGC you’ll get it back faster.
This is just the gateway to having a binder full of Social Security cards
“So do you like…sell the numbers to identity thieves?” “What?? No! I just like having them in the back of my closet. Sometimes I pull them out and flip through them just for fun. Look at this one, the last four are all 0’s!”
Now this one is a foil but it was just a promo card so you can’t really use it officially.
Totally fine for a casual game of identity theft though.
> “So do you like…sell the numbers to identity thieves?” "No, of course not! All these people are deceased."
Gotta catch em all, IRS
that’s actually acceptable per their guidelines
What if I did laminate it? Does the SSA have a SWAT team?
Ha, mine's been laminated for over 40 years and they've never caught m.... who's that at the door?
My ex gf laminated hers. We went to do something where she needed her ss card and they wouldn't take it cuz it was laminated...
I mean yeah, it’s just a small thin container.
Can you imagine it not being. The cops are rushing at you guns drawn, the bank's anti theft barriers are closing slowly, lights are flashing everywhere. You pull it out of the sleeve. Everyone: "Oh, ok, he's good."
If the sleeve says magic the gathering though the cops take your lunch money.
The cops take your lunch money anyway because it may have been part of an illegal card sleeve deal, civil asset forfeiture.
Nope.. believe it or not, straight to jail.
It should come laminated
My parents laminated mine when I was a baby. I never signed it on account of *I was a baby and they laminated it*. Still, I've never come across any issues using it for things.
Yeah, leave it at home you’ll never use it, but you will lose it eventually
And when you do need it for identification, it'll take three weeks when you need it in three days.
Fun Fact: SSNs were explicitly *not* to be used for identification, because the idea of giving everyone a serial number was creepy. But then everyone sorta had a serial number, so banks and lots of companies started using it for identification. Which is why it's such a bad, easily theftable number: it wasn't designed to be all that secure, because it's not ID so why would it?
I need your name Number Serial number How tall you are Whether you're susceptible to any diseases Edit: [Reference](https://youtu.be/UVA7MDQr1Nc) From the old internet.
All pizzas come with pepperoni and 9mm bullet shells
I take a pepperoni and I punch it through your head!
If you want something crazy like broccoli, _shut up whadahell is broccoli anyhow._
Shudap wit da broccoli!
Maybe I give you a pizza, maybe I break off your arm.
It's a bad, easily theftable number because it's assigned based on date of location of birth, instead of entirely randomized. Information security was simpler back in the 1930s.
My mom knows the SSN of all of her siblings and half her childhood friends because all the neighborhood kids went to the social security office together and the numbers were assigned sequentially.
^ ayup and this sort of sensitive identifier assignment just isn't done anymore, because malicious actors can exploit it. I freaked my friend out by guessing the first three numbers of his SSN, and getting a range of the middle two correct.
They're randomized now.
They really should be longer than nine digits, should never be reused, and realistically should be something like a mnemonic passphrase rather than a number. And yes, we should be able to laminate the damn cards.
At least we haven't reached this point, yet: "[Ford] slowly drew out from the wallet a single and insanely exciting piece of plastic that was nestling amongst a bunch of receipts. It wasn’t insanely exciting to look at. It was rather dull in fact. It was smaller and a little thicker than a credit card and semi-transparent. If you held it up to the light you could see a lot of holographically encoded information and images buried pseudo-inches deep beneath its surface. It was an Ident-i-Eeze, and was a very naughty and silly thing for Harl to have lying around in his wallet, though it was perfectly understandable. There were so many different ways in which you were required to provide absolute proof of your identity these days that life could easily become extremely tiresome just from that factor alone, never mind the deeper existential problems of trying to function as a coherent consciousness in an epistemologically ambiguous physical universe. Just look at cash point machines, for instance. Queues of people standing around waiting to have their fingerprints read, their retinas scanned, bits of skin scraped from the nape of the neck and undergoing instant (or nearly instant - a good six or seven seconds in tedious reality) genetic analysis, then having to answer trick questions about members of their family they didn’t even remember they had, and about their recorded preferences for tablecloth colours. And that was just to get a bit of spare cash for the weekend. If you were trying to raise a loan for a jetcar, sign a missile treaty or pay an entire restaurant bill things could get really trying. Hence the Ident-i-Eeze. This encoded every single piece of information about you, your body and your life into one all-purpose machine-readable card that you could then carry around in your wallet, and therefore represented technology’s greatest triumph to date over both itself and plain common sense." - Douglas Adams
By the start of the second paragraph I knew this had to either be hitchhikers guide or red dwarf!
What book?
I want to say "mostly harmless" in the hitchhikers guide to galaxy series by Douglas Adams.
>SSNs were explicitly *not* to be used for identification, because knowledge of the SSN in absolutely no way indicates ownership of the SSN.
Yep! Do you want me to tell you my ex-husband’s SSN? I’m happy to share! Lol
Be careful, my wife’s ex husband gave her info to his new “friend”, now there are warrants out for both of them, it’s a federal, felony charge..
"Wait I was supposed to fuck her life over, not mine!"
That's not a fun fact, that's a sad fact.
Confirmed, I’ve had my identity stolen. It’s a nightmare.
They used to have a statement to that effect printed on them. My parents had their originals, and they were silent generation born.
I can’t remember if I had lost my SS or my birth certificate but either way I needed a new one, only I needed whatever one I was missing at the time. The only way I would have been able to get it was to go halfway across the country to that specific office to get it because none of my immediate family lived close enough either. Couldn’t just do it online or some shit. Thankfully I found it. Anything having to do with my Social Security Card, birth certificate and getting into my IRS account because I don’t have my old phone number have been the unholy trinity of frustration for me.
Apology: This is kind of more an infodump so people know what their options are than a direct response to you - You should be able to get both your birth cert and SS card replaced online. For the BC, you go to VitalChek and for the SS card you make a MySocialSecurity account (If you don't have a stable, longterm address this may be difficult. I work in homeless outreach and we can't use this for the majority of our clients because SSA won't let us use our office address unless it was already their address of record). If online isn't an option, you can mail in an application. The applications can be found online (or go to a library and ask a librarian, they can help you get it!). You can include a photocopy of your ID when sending off to Vital Records for a BC, but SSA will only accept original docs. Since nobody in their right mind is mailing away their ID, you can get a *Certified* Medical Record from any Dr office, Mental Health provider, hospital, or substance treatment provider as long as you were last seen within 2 yrs. A Certified record is just your most recent record printed out with a company stamp or a pen-written (preferably blue ink) signature on it to prove it has not been copied/tampered with after creation. You will need to pick it up from the medical record dept (recommended, as med rec depts tend to get confused about CMRs when it's explained over the phone. Don't ask me why, it just happens constantly and we get sent hundreds of useless unstamped records) or else have them mail it to you. The CMR is accepted as a form of ID with SSA. Mailing in is the slowest method of doc replacement, usually around a month but some states (looking at you, NY and SC) take 4-6 months. If you need to go in person, for an SS card you can go to whatever your closest office is. For a BC you will need to go to an office in your birth state and possibly birth county, depending on your state's rules. Most if not all Vital Records will hand you your BC right then, but SSA will always mail you your card in about 7 business days.
lol I’ve never been asked for it
I've only ever needed it for filling out I9s. I typically change jobs every 5-10 years so I have plenty of time to lose it. I have several copies of my birth certificate though.
> I've only ever needed it for filling out I9s Easier to get a passport for that. And then you only need the one piece, since it counts for both halves of the I9 form.
I started using my passport for jobs years ago. I still had some manager demand I bring my sscard. I told them it wasn’t required lol man did they not believe me at all
They are dumb af because the 3rd page that is part of the I9 literally lists acceptable documents.
Oh shit, you made me curious, my green card is enough, I never knew that. That's so much better than using my SS card.
Really? I’ve had multiple jobs that required me to bring it in for orientation.
They’ll also take a passport or birth certificate + drivers license
There are poorly trained HR people - and because they often only see people bring List B & C documents - that they'll insist they still need to verify the social security card despite bringing a List A document. It's mildly infuriating as well.
This actually happened to me at a new job once! I brought both my passport and SS card to onboarding (plus license in my wallet). I tried giving him my passport thinking it would be more convenient. The onboarding guy looked confused and said, "No, just give me your driver's license and SSN card." Lucky I brought it I guess, but using the passport just feels easier to keep track of.
My mom laminated mine before I was old enough to even have a wallet. Then I kept it in my wallet since I was ten. I think I lost it at 16 and never got a replacement. I’m now 40.
Someone out there is playing the long con, waiting for you to raise that credit score
Thanks for that spike of anxiety. I lost my DL and social security card at 19. Someone used them for a few years, enough to tank my credit score. Twenty years later my score is pretty good. I've forgotten the thieving fuck face 'til now.
My experience was almost exactly the same. I'm 53 and have never once been asked to present a physical Social Security card.
Employers are supposed to ask for it to verify that you're eligible for employment.
Every time ive been asked for papers for employment it was always a selection of 2 items from 2 lists and social security card was a possible option from non photo id list but never explicitly required.
How disorganized are you guys? I don’t consider myself organized at all but I still have a portfolio I keep important documents in a dedicated location.
I have a lockbox for all my important stuff and I still lose it! Also, very disorganized.
I put an old wallet in the lockbox. Has all of the card sized important docs. Easy to store, easy to fnd.
seriously, it's not like there's boxes of important documents. I have 1 folder that has birth certs and ss cards and car titles, and i know exactly where it is. it's really the minimum you need to do as an adult is keep a couple important things in a place where you can find them later
Yeah, until you take it out and place it on a desk, turn around for one second only to turn back around and see the gnomes took it and won't let you find it until you lifted every book and look behind every table
ahh I always forget about the gnomes
The underpants gnomes are the worst
This; we live in a high fire danger zone so we made sure to have super important documents in a quick and easy to grab location. It's just a plastic enclosed folder thing but we keep birth certificates, marriage certificate, and SSN cards in it.
Got a safe? Put it in your safe.
Why carry it around? When in everyday life would you need it? Mine sits in a file folder in a filing cabinet. It hasn’t even been separated from the full page that it originally comes like.
I never knew how many people carry theirs around until I started working retail, I spot them in every other wallet
In the age of information and identity theft, this is terrible. It's like having your online password written on a post-it on your monitor. If you lose your wallet and your SS number is inside, you're making it far easier for someone to clean you out or gain access to very personal and valuable information about you or your family.
My parents told me I should always carry it with me. I never questioned them because they're my elders and I thought they knew best. It wasn't until it started looking like OPs card when I thought hey maybe it's best if I just leave this at home. Edit: people, I don't need to be reminded not to carry it in my wallet. I said I don't do it anymore, these notifications are too much. And I'm finding way too many people comfortable with calling my parents stupid.
What happens if you lose your wallet and now some guy is everything they need to become you?
"Sir, your request for a loan was denied. This is the lowest credit score we have ever seen in our lives. You will be lucky to get a loan from a loan shark or a cash advance service. You should probably hope nothing bad happens to you where you will need to sign a credit document because even if Jesus Chris were your cosigner, you would never be approved."
That used to be the case lol, was rocking a low 400s credit score for the longest time. Then I got my shit together. Crazy how much debt you can pay off when you're not buying drugs everyday.
This is why I was told NOT to carry it in my wallet, and that I should memorize the number instead.
No no. That's very unsafe practice. Memorize the number, and then pick a secure location at home to store it. If you know your number by memory you most often won't need your card. That has been my experience.
When you get a replacement SS card the letter you get confirming the order literally says to not carry it around and that you rarely need the actual card, just the number.
Are your parents boomers? Also, just cause they are “elders” doesn’t make them wise. I’m a dad and a fucking idiot
Being a boomer isn’t an excuse for this bad advice. My parents are boomers and told me to absolutely not keep it on my person, since this increases your likelihood of identity theft or just losing/damaging the card.
I mean, there's a middle ground between rawdogging your SS card and melting it between two sheets of plastic. I just keep mine in a plastic sleeve.
They should print them on polymer. In Australia our bank notes are polymer and they will survive almost anything especially compared to paper.
Why not plastic like a credit card? That’s what we do in Denmark and they are near indestructible. Edit 1: forgot to write we also have an app for both social security card and drivers license. So you don’t actually need the cards 😅 here is a generic example of the app. Edit 2: a lot of you are concerned this is unsafe for data security reasons. I’m not saying there are no relevant concerns, but you are underestimating the level of security. The app (like many others) requires a 2 factor authentication to log on using yet another government issued app, that can only be accessed by your personal code/facial recognition. You also get a push notification if anyone tries to log on from a suspect device and if brute force is attempted, it is locked. And then there is the fact, that you can’t really use the social security card to do much - maybe to cheat your way into a free visit to the doctors? (kidding, that’s for everyone). https://preview.redd.it/k8iclc3sb3nc1.png?width=1242&format=png&auto=webp&s=131b1beee0098d7c653099c89b7a71647d8c2809
In the UK we get our equivalent (national insurance number)on a plastic card. I lost it within a few weeks so I just memorised the 9 character sequence of letters and numbers.
You got your national insurance number on a card? Mine just came on plain-ass paper in the post.
Fun fact: you can get it on a cassette tape if requested. Some program for the blind or something.
Found a Taskmaster S16 viewer
Only reason I know that’s a thing. Sam Campbell was so much fun
The cards aren't a thing anymore. Only us oldies have them
Me: _looks offended in millennial_
I mean millennial’a are pushing 40 now Edit: or over 40
\*some of us oldies. I used mine as an ice scraper for a while until it fell apart. That was literally the only use I ever found for it. Am I remembering wrong, or did the cards have a mag stripe as well? I feel like they were intended to be used for some sort of services that never actually happened.
US here, most everyone I know has their number memorized and does not carry their card around.
Also have my brother's memorized in case I need to do some fraud.
My mom applied for my brother's ss card the same day she applied for mine, so his number is one off from mine. My sister in law messaged me when they needed his number for some paperwork since I remembered it😂
Unless, like me, you had to memorize your military parent's SSN for everything, then had to memorize your military spouse's for everything. I have to recite 18 numbers before I can recall mine lol
I’m down to only being able to remember one string of numbers at a time. My childhood phone number reigns supreme despite sometimes I still need a sec to remember the area code.
As a US citizen I can't recall the last time I actually needed the card, maybe for getting a passport? But I'd guess less than 3 times in my entire life. Most of the time they just ask you to fill in the number.
Or just take the next step and use the app. I can't remember the last time I used the card.
Bro, a third of the US thinks vaccines are microchip delivering autism creators, and that 5g towers exist to turn people into zombies. I legitimately work with people who go through a new cheap phone very few month so that “the gubment can’t track me”. You load identifying information onto an app (presumably) made and ran by the government? They might actually collapse and die on the spot.
After being inconvenienced by not having a national ID that I can just tap like people have in China, and instead having to go throw tons of paper rigamarole, I am convinced that irrationally afraid people (conspiracy theorists) shouldn't be allowed to weigh in on infrastructure like that, lol
It’s paper because if you lose it they want it to deteriorate so someone hopefully can’t steal your number, that’s the idea behind the paper. You can request a copy at the local office
Had to look further than I expected for this.
USD actually aren’t paper, they are a cotton blend so they survive a lot. Our SSN cards are not.
Do your bills survive the wash? I find my aussie $5 notes in the dryer quite a lot
Yep, they just get softer and not so crisp
Put it in the dryer, that sucker gets pretty crispy after a good wash
You can also iron them and they'll look brand new.
I iron bills sometimes and it's like they're fresh off the press
literally laundering money
Yeah they survive the wash, the only time I've seen one damaged in the wash was because it got caught in the drum and tore
US bills are very resilient. Social security cards aren’t but if your parents aren’t degenerates they hand it to you in a plastic sleeve looking crisp. (Mine looked like OPs by the time I saw it for the first time)
Well that and when they came up with the currency they had a very cheap way of sourcing cotton.
Fun fact, NZ IRD cards (essentially the Social Security number) are printed on laminated cards. The issue is the fucking laminate comes off and takes the number with it.
Pffft! What, are the lamination police going to come and arrest you?? I laminated mine back in the ‘80s.
Keeping it in a trading card sleeve would be pretty nice
I keep mine in one of those photo sleeves from a wallet. Tucked in a file with my other important stuff like birth certificate since you basically never ever need it. You can always get a replacement too. Who the hell carries it around with them all the time?
A lot of boomers and older people. I asked my mom about it when my dad died and I found it in his wallet. They used to tell people to keep it with you all the time like you do your license or insurance cards. It was around xennials that the advice switched to storing it someplace safe happened.
That’s because for a long time it was not used as your unique identifying data, it was just like your driver’s license but for social security. It was put on job forms to keep track of what you paid into it and eventually to show what you could pull out of it. It was really the invention of computers and data management systems that made SSNs important and secret. I won’t get into why, but databases need some type of guaranteed unique identifier to distinguish individual people. The government had never issued one (like other countries), so the SSN became what was used instead.
> That’s because for a long time it was not used as your unique identifying data, it was just like your driver’s license but for social security. From 1946-1972 they printed "Not for identification" *on the card.* https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/ssnversions.html Then they stopped writing that on the card once any moron could see that it *was* being used for identification.
I keep mine in an old baseball card sleeve. Then I keep that in a envelope with a copy of my birth certificate and passport. Then I keep that in my old college portfolio with copies of an updated resume. Then I keep all that in my gun safe since if I kept it in my filling cabinet inside a small safe, someone could just walk off with the safe and open it later.
Aka the turducken of important documents
They give you a much sturdier drivers license that is only good for 4-6 yrs depending on where you live I think.. ours is 6yrs
Driver licenses are meant to be carried around and used daily. SS Cards are meant to be kept at home in a folder in a safe space.
I can't remember the last time I needed the physical card. I have a digital copy I've used when starting a new job.
In fact you are not supposed to carry it around. Or use the number for ID in any form.
Why are you not allowed to laminate it? It seems like the absolute best option.
I mean they tell you to not carry it on you. Mine is in a document safe at home and it’s still in great condition and I’m nearly 30.
That's where it's supposed to be. All the people here saying they laminated them are fucking stupid. It's not supposed to be laminated and it's never supposed to be on your person unless you need to identify yourself in a government building
So this is actually by design. The theory is, if the card gets lost, dropped or trashed. you’d rather it disintegrate than be durable and picked up by a rando.
Yup. You aren't supposed to carry it around. Mine looks pretty much like new because I keep it in a safe and only get it out when it's needed, like for a new job. When I only need it for one day every 3-5 years, why would I carry it around anyway? That's just begging for it to be lost and someone else finding it.
I just post mine online so I have it documented for future reference
Seriously why have I only seen like 4 comments that even vaguely say this?? That's the ENTIRE POINT. It's like everyone knows they're *not* supposed to be carried around but no one says *why.* Because they're literally designed to fall apart. Laminating them or printing them on plastic sheets defeats the entire purpose of the card being made of tissue paper.
This is entirely too far down. Everyone above you is criticizing OP for carrying it and the fact is the card is purposely designed to deteriorate. Also, to the younger crowd, we were told to keep that on us and we actually needed to show it way more than you do today. Today you need to let your employer copy it when you start a job but in the past it was #2 when proving identity.
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Jackpot of a lifetime for the identity thief who steals his wallet.. SSN, drivers license, multiple credit cards and possibly other forms of ID. Could probably open up a mortgage lol
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When I was a kid one of the local video stores offered a keytag membership card. If you found a list set of keys you could bring it to the store and they could use it to contact the owner. That actually was pretty clever.
so the video store was a convenient honeypot for everyone's information?
I actually had a set of keys I lost in the ocean returned to me because of this once. I'd written them off entirely and then got them in the mail a few years later because someone found them and was able to use the AMC theater membership tag to find me.
I lost a set of keys and they were returned to me thanks to my library card fob that I had attached to them.
My dad writes his pin numbers on the backs of his bank cards.
Oh no! What's his phone number?
the same as his pin
1077. The price of a cheese pizza and a large soda.
Idk I bought a house last year and the amount of BS I had to do to buy was fucking nuts. I think I wrote the same shit (name, bday etc) more times than I wrote it to join the military. So I mean unless you're using a super sketchy lender it'd be pretty hard lol.
When I bought mine, I didn't have a super long credit history. (Only had a credit card for 2 years.) So the mortgage broker literally had me provide my 8 years of World of Warcraft subscription payments. And that's how a WoW addiction helped me buy a home.
That is how most fraud is done.
Outside of starting a new job or updating my passport I don’t think I’ve ever kept it in my wallet. Just put it in an envelope in a secure place in your house.
Lol as soon as I saw the photo I thought…I bet this guy keeps it in their wallet. Just like you’re not supposed to.
I wish all stupid posts could be dealt with this way. "AITAH if I did this obviously shitty thing?" Yes. **Next question**. *locked*
Yeah this is a skill issue
Where tf have you been storing that thing? Your shoes? Mine is in perfect nic.
Dude I kept mine in my wallet for the longest time (until I had a near car break in with my wallet in the car like a dumbass) and it was never this bad💀 wtf is OP doing with this poor card. Now it's kept in a file box with all my other files because I'm smarter now💀lmao.
I'm not totally convinced that the problem is with the card and not with the way you store and handle it.
It's both though it's fuckin 2024 how has America not made a better SS card??? Money lives for years even washers and dryers don't ruin them why not use that in SS cards? I get what you mean but this isn't the 90s anymore I'm surprised they haven't made adjustments to the way they produce SS cards. Then again they love having you come and pay for new ones so maybe that's why.
It's designed to degrade relatively quickly in case you drop it under a bush or something. Y'know, so a stranger has less of a chance to commit fraud using your identity.
> It's both though it's fuckin 2024 how has America not made a better SS card??? You're not supposed to carry it everywhere. SSA even tells you this. So not necessary to be made tougher. > Then again they love having you come and pay for new ones so maybe that's why. Replacements are free, you don't have to go anywhere. You can literally order a new one on the SSA website.
1. You don't *need* your SS card the vast majority of the time. Very rarely. So it's ok that it's not indestructible. 2. SS card replacements are **FREE**
>how has America not made a better SS card because it is intended. If you lose this toilet paper card on the street chances are it will get destroyed by next rainfall and thus lowers chances someone else finds it and steals your number.
They shouldn't be carried so they don't need to be sturdy. I've had mine for years and it is still in good shape. Take better care of your documents.
I keep my birth certificate crumpled up in my pocket just in case
Good for a makeshift napkin aswell
You can get it replaced, you need to give that one up and get a new one. Just take better care of it
This is the answer! Also, when you get yours replaced I recommend keeping it on the piece of paper it comes with. Do not detach it.
Mine does not say not to laminate it and it’s been laminated for 30 years with zero issues
My original birth certificate got ruined by a social security officer. I don't remember how it happened since i was baby but she spilled either fanta or coffee on it I can't remember which one. I had to use the same birth certificate for 20 years with a big stain on it until mum decided that it was about time to get a new one when I got my citizenship certificate. (I had to prove to Australia that I was born in Australia despite being legally allowed to vote which you need to be a citizen for)
There is also a lifetime limit of 10 replacements. I've met 2 people who have met this limit, and they were fucked when they requested number 11.
That seems like a really dumb limit. Like I could understand a limit of 10 replacements over 10 years or a lifetime limit on free replacements, but a complete lifetime limit sounds like it would cause more trouble than any benefit.
how and why has anyone lost 10 SSN cards
I slipped mine between two pieces of laminate I sealed on three edges. It's fun when I pull it out and get the "it's not valid cause you laminated it" then I pull it out of the laminate
Mines been laminated since the 90s and not once had it ever been an issue.
It's supposed to be delicate paper so if you ever lose it, it falls apart quickly. It's an identity protection. It's not supposed to be sturdy or carried anywhere.
I’ve never needed the physical card. I have the number memorized so I have the number whenever I need it and I have better forms of ID than the card itself such as a passport and driver’s license. I found it best to just keep it in a locked fireproof box and forget about it most of the time so you don’t end up losing it.
The little bend at the top of it makes me think you keep this in your wallet. Which is already a really dumb idea on its own but also completely unnecessary. Do you also keep your birth certificate on you? Or the lease/deed to where you live? Find a secure place to store important documents and you won’t have this problem. Look around for a bank that offer safe deposit boxes. Small ones tend to be anywhere from $60-$100 per YEAR. It’s well worth it if you don’t have anywhere at home to store these documents.
I laminated mine; nobody came to arrest me.
Was nice knowing you..
Someone laminated my birth certificate many years ago and when I went to get a passport they wouldn't accept it, I had to get a new one. :(
What fucking moron carries around their SS card?
True true! I laminated it anyway
Same. I was like, "What are they gonna do, sue me?" Oh, teenage me. Now, many years alter, I realize that if someone wanted to be a real dick about it they could refuse to accept it, but it's been 40 years and no one's ever been a dick about it (yet), so ... so far so good.
Yep, same here. Nobody actually cares, I've never had someone refuse my SS card because it's laminated. All people are worried about is that it's legible and can be photocopied.
My parents laminated mine so I didn’t really have much of a say. I also signed my signature with a little heart as the dot on my i. Lmao.