Very upset

[jsOk]

I have had the good fortune to be reading this very useful board for some time. It is really an empowering board. Thank you all to have given so much information

I am so upset I could just cry. I am co-signing for my son to obtain a loan on a townhouse ( it is very small, great location, good price).

Went over to his home today to check on his dog while he is out of town. His landlord who is not the most pleasant person was working on his roof. He told me that he had received a request for verification of rent or mortgage from the loan company.... but on the form it had all of our social security numbers! He then told me all of the things a person could do with somebody elses ss#

I am so upset. Should the loan company gave this man our ss numbers? I am so upset and worried what this man could do with our numbers

[itsgettingbetter]

but I had to provide my landlord with my full social security number when I moved into my apartment (so that he could do a credit check on me before he rented to me).

I am sure that if there is any fraud that is traceable back to this landlord due to his misuse of any information that he has obtained through his position as a landlord that the penalties will be very severe. Usually landlords are very careful to safeguard private information so that they are not liable for fraud etc.

However, the company that sent this information to him may be at fault. I think that usually they black out some of the numbers--so that only about 4 are visible before they send transmit this type of information.

[Ravenous Wolf]

When doing credit transactions, it is almost impossible to avoid using an SSN.

Until this country agrees to using a National ID card for every citizen, an SSN is the defacto standard as a national identification number.

So just about anybody with a permissable purpose (like a credit transaction) can view an SSN although attempts are now being made to prevent disclosure of the entire number.

[amortgageman]

Thanks Ravenous Wolf, I really did not want to answer that.

It is true that when a borrower signs the borrowers authorization disclosure to check credit, that this information does go out to any of the creditors or mortgage companies, landlords, employers, title companies, etc. on any verification.

But, it really has me thinking, and maybe a private landlord would not even care whether they have this information or not. I guess all they would do is ask to send a borrowers authorization.

Enlightening concern.

[jsOk]

Thank you so much for your replies. This landlord did not have my son's ss# to begin with. He is a private landlord, only owns 1 property. This man has been in trouble for writting bad checks and some other fraud charges. I did tell our loan officer this, and that I did not want this man to have our social securty numbers. I was just very upset after the run in. This man told me that he had been able to access my son's checking account information via the phone system. That he was able to use my son's last check that he wrote him for rent, with the account numbers, and used my son's last 4 digits of his ss# to find out how much was in his account. He was just very gloatful about the whole thing.

[Recovering Attorney]

Have your lawyer write him a stern letter reminding him it is against the law to misuse someone's SS#.

Now, I must tell you, though, I have done similar things with ## when I have had to help clients. Like ordering mortgage payoff letters. And to the medical practices or distributors who I collected for, I would always advise them to get SS# and birthdates, so you could use the sophisticated info search capabilities now available to find skips. Of course, in all those situations, the people volunteered the info.