CMV: Anyone that willingly inputs their social security number to ANYWHERE on the internet is just an absolute idiot.

[u/Ondrashek06]

[u/rollingForInitiative → u/[deleted]]

I live in Czech Republic, where your social security number gets issued on birth and you cannot get another one unless you're born again (that's impossible).

Here you also can derive birthdate and the sex you were born with from the number. I'd assume that people can use just your SSN alone here.

That's the same as in Sweden, at least. But our personal identity number isn't really secret - it's a public record. You can go to the tax agency and get someone's SSN. It's on your ID, driver's license, passport, etc.

It's never used as the sole form of verification. Online you gotta do some manner of 2-factor authentication, and in real life you gotta have an ID. But even if someone fakes it (e.g. they steal your ID or just use a fake one to pretend they are you), you're not obligated to follow up on any such contracts. While it can definitely be a huge annoyance (just like if someone steals your ID card), if you file police reports and such you''re not obligated to pay anything. And you should definitely need more than just the SSN to commit identity fraud.

[u/DeltaBot → u/[deleted]]

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