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> ssn was close enough to someone on the govt watch list that I was effectively on the list

This is exceedingly dumb if true. Numerical adjacency of SSNs is completely meaningless.

Yes, but if I was looking to make a fake identity, I would steal a real one and fudge something like the SSN plus or minus one on a random digit. Then you can blame the mismatch on their people making a typo, and they would be less likely to look closer at my forged SSN card/Passport/Drivers License.

Okay but the issue here is SSNs close to one that's already flagged also get flagged apparently. If you know your social is flagged and are giving a fake one why would you make it anything remotely similar to your own already flagged one?

It’s what I remember the desk agent telling me. Who knows how much that person knew about the system (and even if my memory is 100% accurate).

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