Gave him another's Social Security Number?!

[Stinkerpotsam 5]

We are having no end of trouble with the Social Security Admin due to them assigning someone else's number to my husband.

I'll be calling them once again tomorrow but wondering .. Has this happened to anyone else?

[milimelo 4,205]

Moving to a more appropriate forum - working and traveling during US immigration forum.

If you contact VJ member IQuit he may be able to give you more information as he is familiar with SSA.

Edited July 13, 2011 by milimelo

[Brother Hesekiel 2,235]

We are having no end of trouble with the Social Security Admin due to them assigning someone else's number to my husband.

I'll be calling them once again tomorrow but wondering .. Has this happened to anyone else?

Huh?

Somebody else's SS number? How do you know?

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

I believe this happened to JimvaPhoung actually. Might want to pm him.

[Stinkerpotsam 5]

As an update--I spoke with SSA this morning and they guaranteed that no number has ever been reissued, even in the event that someone dies, etc. They are once only usage. I was advised to contact the FTC and Credit Bureau to have them work this out as it seems that someone may have just made up the number (that now belongs to my husband) several years ago and started using it on credit applications etc.

WHAT A CLUSTER ****

[I'm Gone 60]

How do you know?

It can happen, but not that often. I would also ask what makes you think you have been assigned another person's SSN?

I know of one case that triplets from China all were assigned the same SSN. One applied for and was assigned an SSN. The other two went into two other offices to apply. Since all the information for the other two was the same as the one that was assigned the SSN (first names were something like ping, pong and pang), the system issued them replacement cards, rather than there own SSNs. This is one of the times SSA does delete information from the SSN record. The two records were deleted off the SSN record and they were assigned their own SSNs.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

I've answered the OP's PM, but just for the record...

Yes, this same thing happened to my wife. In our case, we discovered the error when we received my wife's annual Social Security statement, with her correct name and address, but showing over 20 years of work history. At that time my wife had only been in the US about a year, and had never worked in the US at all.

We called the 800 number on the statement to report the error. They were of little use other than to confirm what we already knew - the account showed 20 years of work history. They told us we'd need to go back to the local field office to get it straightened out. The clerks in the field office were largely clueless about what to do until a senior supervisor looked at the case. She was the one who told us that someone else had been using the SSN illegally. How they managed to do that she never explained. We had to refile from scratch for a new number. They sent us home to get my wife's birth certificate, which we returned with the following day. They completed the application, and we got a new card in about 4 weeks.

The explanation I got from the supervisor is that they would normally just delete the work history associated with the account. However, in this case, the person who used the SSN had accrued enough quarters of work history to be eligible for retirement benefits, presuming they ever get legal status in the US. The supervisor told us it would be reported to the IRS, but they wouldn't erase the account.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,235]

So your wife was looking forward to a truckload of retirement money based on the hard work of an illegal immigrant who paid into SS for 2 decades without ever being able to collect and you refused the money, telling them to use it for the war instead?

You are a good American. God bless your heart.

[I'm Gone 60]

Yes, this same thing happened to my wife.

This wasn't the same thing. In your wife's case it sounds like someone was working with a made up SSN and it just happened to be the one your wife was assigned.

RM 03870.062 Issuance of a Second SSN

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0103870062

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

So your wife was looking forward to a truckload of retirement money based on the hard work of an illegal immigrant who paid into SS for 2 decades without ever being able to collect and you refused the money, telling them to use it for the war instead?

You are a good American. God bless your heart.

From looking at the work history and the reported income, I don't think she had much to look forward to...

This wasn't the same thing. In your wife's case it sounds like someone was working with a made up SSN and it just happened to be the one your wife was assigned.

RM 03870.062 Issuance of a Second SSN

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0103870062

Dunno. We were back in the local office today and they changed their tune.

We went to the bank to have my wife's SSN changed and the bank told us they wouldn't change her SSN in their records unless we got a statement from SSA confirming that the number was changed. It's the bank's policy (rightly so) that Social Security numbers do not change, and they had already reported interest on the old SSN. They wanted a letter from SSA so they could cover their own tails.

We went to the local office to get a letter describing what happened. The letter the clerk wrote was terse, but contained sufficient information for our purposes - the original number was issued in error, and a new number was issued. But this clerk told us a different story than the one we were originally told. He said that SSA's computers had matched my wife to someone else living in the US with the exact same name, birthday, city of birth, and parent's names. The computer assumed my wife was the same person, so it determined a replacement card was being issued. What's bizarre is that the replacement card had the requisite "DHS authorization" statement on it. Why would the computer think that someone who had been working for more than 20 years would suddenly need DHS authorization to work?

Ok, my wife's family name is as common as dirt in Vietnam - more than half the population has the same family name. There's no family name in the US that would even come close by comparison - not even Smith or Jones. Maybe a name in India like Singh or Patel might be reasonably close to being as common. But the same birthday, city of birth, and parent's names? Needless to say, we were pretty blown away.

Anyway, we're going to the bank tomorrow. We still have to follow up with USCIS and the IRS. I'm more concerned about the IRS than anyone else. I'm expecting they'll tell me they want me to file revised returns for the past two years just to update the SSN.

[I'm Gone 60]

We went to the local office to get a letter describing what happened. The letter the clerk wrote was terse, but contained sufficient information for our purposes - the original number was issued in error, and a new number was issued. But this clerk told us a different story than the one we were originally told. He said that SSA's computers had matched my wife to someone else living in the US with the exact same name, birthday, city of birth, and parent's names. The computer assumed my wife was the same person, so it determined a replacement card was being issued. What's bizarre is that the replacement card had the requisite "DHS authorization" statement on it. Why would the computer think that someone who had been working for more than 20 years would suddenly need DHS authorization to work?

Ok, my wife's family name is as common as dirt in Vietnam - more than half the population has the same family name. There's no family name in the US that would even come close by comparison - not even Smith or Jones. Maybe a name in India like Singh or Patel might be reasonably close to being as common. But the same birthday, city of birth, and parent's names? Needless to say, we were pretty blown away.

OK now that sounds like a wrong number case. Computer issues the card based on the evidence provided. There would be no reason to look at the earnings record when processing an SSN application.

[Stinkerpotsam 5]

Thanks for that link; I plan to take that with us if they don't get this in order for him ASAP. Still no word on the

letters that were sent to the credit bureaus, etc. Hoping this doesn't turn into a huge debacle with the "lifting of restrictions"

just around the corner.