Missing Social Security Funds
I visited my local SS office to ask questions and was told by the SS rep not to set up an online account to access my SS info. If you have online access to your SS account then your account may be hac...
Forum Discussion
So someone got your wife's user name and password, as well as her SS number, in order to log in and change the info? How did they get that info?
Barb
Not quite correct. All someone really needs is SSN and Mothers Maiden name to recover "lost" user name and password.
As an old time computer programer I know that there are many ways to get this information.
Look through news at how often there are news stories about companies computer information being compromised.
It wasn't that many years ago that we used SSN for identifiers everywhere. When I was in college, it was my student ID, in several states it was my drivers license #, when I applied for any credit card they wanted that number, fill out an application for child care and they wanted SSN of parents. There are very many ways that this information was exposed.
So company ABC that has old files and tosses them, what happens when the dumpster divers go through the trash. Then there are groups of people who find the information and then sell it to scammers for their "enjoyment"
Another point is that you can find SSN/Name combinations in a bunch of ways. Adding the required mothers maiden name is so simple. First off, it can probably be found with the SSN/Name information. If not, then go on ancestry.com to find it.
Good user name/passwords are reasonably good at keeping me out of my information because my memory is leaving, but not any good at keeping a determined con artist out.
Identification information lives forever and who knows where it can be found.
