What are your thoughts on this website?
A FRIEND of mine on Face Book told me to ask you guys this question:
I went looking for some info on my Mom. I had typed in my Mom’s first and last (married) name in the Google search engine. I found her on about the 5th page in, up front and center WITH her SS printed clearly. Below that info was the link to the website that provided this information.
The website is http://www.faqs.org/people-search.
At the top is the alphabet. Say you’re looking for “Smith.” Click S. Then it takes you to other levels. When all is said and done, you find who you’re looking for, along with a million other people….and all of their SS numbers are included.
It just doesn’t seem right that people’s SS numbers are there for the whole world to view….especially the SS number of people who are deceased (because if their number is stolen, who would know?)
What do you guys think of this?
I want to reiterate…I didn’t find the info on my Mom by going to that website. The info was on the main website search pages, along with her SS number, and there was a link into the faqs.org there. But once your in there…man….
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6 Answers
This website has been identified as a source of computer viruses!
The presense od SS numbers seems perfect for use by criminals,
I visited the site and couldn’t find myself or any of my dead relatives (using any of the last names they ever had). The Social Security Administration maintains a Death Master File with this same information that is available to the public; scroll down to see how to get the list. It looks like all this website does is take already public information and make it easier to access.
From the site:
“Social Security Numbers of deceased individuals are released publicly to prevent identity theft. This allows banks and other businesses to deny the use of these inactive SSNs and prevents a living person from assuming the identity of a deceased person.”
As @SuperMouse notes, this data has always been out there for any who know how to go find it.
Thanks.
So…why is the rest of the population so anal about not revealing other people’s SS numbers, if they’re that easy to get?
@Dutchess_III those social security numbers belong to dead people and the Social Security Administration has been notified of their deaths. The whole purpose of making a database of this information available to the public is to prevent people from stealing the SSN’s of the dead and creating false identities. While there is certainly a database of every SSN, it most likely not available to the public quite so easily.
@Dutchess_III It’s the SSN’s of living people or ones that have just died and not yet been posted as no longer valid numbers that pose a risk of identity theft and fraud.
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