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Deciphering Social Security Numbers
By Randy Henrick
Federal regulators estimate that 4 percent
of identity theft involves the stealing
of Social Security numbers belonging
to children. What dealerships need to
realize is the perfect way to combat this
is by simply examining those nine little digits.
A Social Security number is divided into three parts:
the area, the group and the serial number. Two of those three parts can tell an F&I manager how long ago the
number was issued, and in which state. Just make sure
to ask customers where and when they think their
number was issued. There are also several Websites
available to dealers that can help determine whether
a Social Security number is phony or not.
Below is a quick primer on how to decipher a Social
Security number.
HOW SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS WORK AND WHAT INFORMATION THEY PROVIDE
1. The first three digits (the area number) of a SSN are determined by the state
where the number was
issued. You can get the
state-assigned list for each
3-digit origination code by
visiting http://www.socialsecurity.gov/employer/stateweb.htm. Ask customers
what state they lived in
when their Social Security
number was issued. If a
customer's answer doesn't
match the 3-digit numbers
for that state, beware.
2. Within each area, the group number (middle two digits)
ranges from 01 to 99. However, this range is not assigned
in consecutive order. For administrative reasons, two-digit
numbers issued first consist of odd numbers from 01 to 09,
followed by even numbers from 10 through 98 within each
area number allocated to each state. After all numbers in
odd groups and even groups of a particular area have been
issued, the even groups 02 through 08 are used, followed by
odd groups 11 through 99. For example, someone whose
middle two digits are 07 should be much older than someone
whose middle digits are 95. That's because someone
who is younger would have a higher number, due to the fact
that the smaller numbers were already issued. Each month
the Social Security Administration updates the “High Group
List” of two-digit numbers on its Website.
3. The last four digits are
assigned consecutively
from 0001 through 9999
within each area and
group sequence. They do
not provide any meaningful
information about a
person to verify his or her
identity.
As a note, you can also check a SSN against the Social Security Administration's Death Master File by visiting http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/, which is a full file of persons reported to the SSA as being deceased. This may help you catch a thief who is
using a Social Security number that is no longer valid.