Social Security theft hardest to fix

There’s identify theft and then there’s identity theft.

The most prevalent form — stealing a credit card or debit card to make purchases — can be fixed fairly quickly.

But the second kind — using someone’s Social Security number to get a job or a driver’s license, to obtain medical care or government benefits — can ensnarl the victim for years.

“You are caught in the middle of trying to prove a negative,” said Jay Foley, co-founder with his wife, Linda, of the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego. “‘I didn’t sign that document. I didn’t do this or that.’

“And get a company to give up a document to you? Good luck. They will do all they can to stop that,” Foley said.

Businesses, also alert to the potential for identify theft, are hesitant to provide documents to people claiming someone is illegally using their information, Foley said.

Identity theft victims should file a police report and present a copy of it to businesses, Foley said. “The company is no longer under the obligation of privacy to protect the person who was doing business with them.”

Jaimee Napp, executive director of the Identity Theft Action Council of Nebraska, said neither employers nor the government checks to see if a Social Security number being claimed for one job is being used simultaneously for another job.

The federal government’s Internet-based E-Verify system used by companies to check on job applicants’ eligibility status also could unintentionally encourage identity theft, Napp said. Undocumented immigrants are more likely now to buy or steal names and Social Security numbers whereas in the past they generally produced false documents that employers accepted.

“It has increased the number of real U.S. citizens becoming victims of ID theft,” Napp said.

Regina Huerta, who has battled for a decade to reclaim her identity, finally obtained a new Social Security number last Tuesday.

But even that can be problematic, experts said.

Those nine-digit numbers have become the central peg for identifying where a person was born, graduated, worked, received a driver’s license and paid taxes.

A new number is like starting over with a clean slate, but it can virtually wipe out connections to the past, Foley said.

“You give up a college degree, work history and credit history,” he said. “At 50 years old, try to explain that to creditors and employers.”

Even if the explanation of a new number is believed, Foley said, businesses could decide “you have baggage, and we don’t need you.”

John Garlinger, a Social Security Administration spokesman, said the agency links old and new numbers to track lifetime earnings and establish retirement benefits, so people who get new numbers still get credit for work under previous numbers.

To obtain new Social Security numbers, identity theft victims must clearly explain how they have been harmed and what steps they’ve taken with law enforcement, credit reporting agencies and others to clear up the mistaken identity, Garlinger said.

“If you are being disadvantaged because of what happened and done everything you could and somebody is still using your number,” the agency might change it, he said.

As for Huerta, identity thieves have destroyed her credit and hampered her ability to get a job or buy a house, she said. She’s ready to start over.

“Any good credit I have is going out with the bad. I don’t care about that. At this point, I just want to get a job.”

contact the writer:

444-1117, joe.ruff@owh.com

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