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| The Basics | Help catch a Social Security cheat
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Using several Social Security numbers is a felony, and the government wants to know. But to report the scoundrel, you need some key information.
By Liz Pulliam Weston
Dear Liz: Say a person has multiple Social Security numbers, all with different names. This person also has multiple credit cards under all these different names. Would this be wrong? If so, how does one go about getting this person arrested?
I tried to report this to the police but was told that unless I'm a victim of identity theft by this person, I don't have any standing to report it. So I'm starting to get the impression it's not so wrong after all. What do you think?
Answer: You had it right the first time. This is fraud. It's a felony to use someone else's Social Security number or to deliberately provide false information to the Social Security Administration.
The good news is that the Social Security Administration treats the misuse of its numbers quite seriously, spokesman Lowell Kepke said. It has an office of the inspector general that will take your report and investigate if at all possible.
Therein lies the rub. You need to be able to provide enough identifying information for investigators to track this lowlife down.
It would be ideal if you could supply the person's real Social Security number as well as any of the ones being used fraudulently. If you can't, try to supply as much identifying information as you can, including the person's name, address, telephone number, place of birth -- even the father's name and mother's birth name, if possible.
Include a detailed description of what the person has done, and include your own name, address and telephone number for any follow-up questions.
You may report this information by calling the inspector general's office at (800) 269-0271 or by writing to Social Security Administration OIG Hotline, P.O. Box 17768, Baltimore, MD 21235. Or visit the Web site, which has more information and explains how to report fraud.
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Dear Liz: I appreciate your advice on ways to improve your credit score, particularly when it comes to making payments on time.
But I must respectfully disagree with your advice to set up automatic payments to utilities and other vendors. I'd never allow so many agencies access to my checking account. Very little information is private anymore, but one thing I try to protect, and others should also, is bank account numbers.
Answer: You might want to take a look at the checks you write each month when paying bills. Your account number and your bank routing number are on every single one of them.
You can choose to have all this information floating around in the U.S. postal system if you want. But electronic payments are actually a much more secure way of paying your bills, and you have greater protections under federal banking laws if your payment should go astray.
If the idea of having vendors debit your checking account directly bothers you, consider having your bills charged to a credit card -- as long as you're able to pay the card in full each month. Or explore online bill paying, which allows you to set up recurring payments while remaining in control of when each bill gets paid.
Dear Liz: Your column on tracking receipts was quite interesting, but it still appeared to be a lot of work.
The method that I use is to enter data from my credit card statements when they arrive, and enter information from cash receipts two or three times a week, into my Quicken personal finance software.
At tax time it is easy to create reports for my accountant. (The information can also be exported directly into TurboTax, for those masochists who want to do their own returns.)
Answer: Personal finance software like Quicken or Microsoft Money is indeed a huge time saver and a great way to track your finances. But most people haven't gone to the trouble of buying and using such software, which is why it's important to discuss other paper-handling methods.
By the way, you probably could save even more time by setting your software to download your transactions directly from your credit card companies. You could update your records as often as daily, rather than having to wait until the end of the month, and you wouldn't have to do all that tedious typing.
Liz Pulliam Weston is the author of "Your Credit Score: How to Fix, Improve and Protect the 3-Digit Number That Shapes Your Financial Future." Questions for Money Talk can be submitted to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon Blvd., No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or at LizWeston.com.
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MSN Money's editorial goal is to provide a forum for personal finance and investment ideas. Our articles, columns, message board posts and other features should not be construed as investment advice, nor does their appearance imply an endorsement by Microsoft of any specific security or trading strategy. An investor's best course of action must be based on individual circumstances.
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