COURTS: USING ANOTHER'S SSN NOT A CRIME

[rippedoff]

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2010/11/courts-using-anothers-ssn-not-a-crime.html

Awesome!

It needs to be a crime to collect and use SSN's without permission, period.

It's ridiculous how many "services" are getting away with collecting and disseminating personal details for profit and without permission. Any sort of private, For profit, "credit bureau" should be outlawed.

[jq26]

The one decision listed turned on the use of a "random" SSN. In another words, if you were illegal and didn't have a SSN and put down a random nine digit number on a job application, did you knowingly commit identify theft? Probably not. You can't knowingly impersonate someone who is anonymous. You may still be guilty of something else. Just not impersonation.

In the other decision, the applicant for a car loan did not impersonate someone else because he used his real name, real address, birth date, and place of employment. He just used someone else's SSN. So he didn't hold himself out to be someone he wasn't to the lender. If the lender had half a brain, they would have checked the listed SSN against the information he provided.

In both cases, the defendants were found not guilty on a criminal charge. But that doesn't mean they aren't liable for damages.

I think if someone is using a SSN other than their own to commit theft or to impersonate someone, it is pretty clear cut.

Edited November 30, 2010 by jq26

[rippedoff]

It needs to be a crime to collect and use SSN's without permission, period.

It's ridiculous how many "services" are getting away with collecting and disseminating personal details for profit and without permission. Any sort of private, For profit, "credit bureau" should be outlawed.

AND It's NOT clear cut when someone else uses a SSN or reports false info to the CB or other "service" using someone's SSN. Do you even read any of the posts on this forum? People have false info on those reports all the time and it's Impossible to get rid of. My own report has Nothing on it that is actually mine.

If the banks and everyone else were not using those reports the way they are to extort money from defenseless folks, people wouldn't be damaged.

In the end, the damage done to my reputation is caused by the banks, not 'whoever', because it's the banks themselves who have created the false information.

[jq26]

Who said you advovated using another's SSN? Certainly not me.

I don't know what to tell you about your report. If you have inaccurate data on your report, then go after whomever is putting it there. In my experience, creditors who put false info on the report will remove it if it is indeed false.

If you were the victim of identify theft, then you file a police report and handle it through a different channel.

I've been in this forum for five years. I've read plenty of the posts about credit reports. Enough that I could probably write a book. Inaccurate data is not impossible to get rid of.