Tuesday, March 20, 2007

'The only thing I learned in college, was my social security number'.



'Did you know that 078-05-1120 is the most stolen social security number ever? Over 40,000 people have claimed that this number, belonging to a secretary of an wallet manufacturing executive, is their own. From the SSA:

In 1938, wallet manufacturer the E. H. Ferree company in Lockport, New York decided to promote its product by showing how a Social Security card would fit into its wallets. A sample card, used for display purposes, was inserted in each wallet. Company Vice President and Treasurer Douglas Patterson thought it would be a clever idea to use the actual SSN of his secretary, Mrs. Hilda Schrader Whitcher.

The wallet was sold in Woolworth's and even though the card was half the size of a real one and printed all in red, 40,000 people "ID thefted" the number. Eventually, Ms. Whitcher was issued a new SSN.

...Or did you know that social security numbers are not issued in sequence? Or that the first set of numbers increases from northeast to southwest, depending on where you were born? Or that the first Social Security number was issued to someone who died before collecting benefits? Or that the first payment was $.17? Ah, trivia!'

Social Security Numbers Decoded



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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The first 3 digits of the SSN don't depend on where you were born. They're related to where you lived when you applied.

Nowadays parents apply for their newborns (usually before they leave the hospital), so that may be true for people born within the last decade or so.

But there are lots of people born well before that who got their SSNs long after they were born, and were not living near their birthplace.

I was born in Iowa, but moved to New England when I was 3 months old (after my dad finished school). I don't think I applied for my SSN until I needed it, right before I started working as a teen. My SSN starts with "006." My husband's starts with "007" (he was born in Maine).

March 20, 2007  

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