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Comment by jylam | Hacker News Reader

As a European/French, why is the SSN so important to Americans ? I mean my SSN in France was automatically generated at my birth (basically from my birth gender, date, location, and the Nth baby I was this year in this location). I could generate the correct SSN of most my close friends from my head to maybe 3 digits on the first try if I had to.

They took a bit more than that ok (credit card numbers, but you can't do much with this without the CVV and the expiration date anyway, and you'll need to send a confirmation to your bank anyway).

So why is that such a big deal ?

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So in the US you can do "credit freezes" which prevent people from taking out new loans/new cards in your name.

HOWEVER - you can't do anything about the fact they can call up your bank, say "I forgot my password" and then give them your SSN. Your bank will happily reset the password for them. If someone has your SSN they essentially have everything they need to get access to any of your financial, medical, or utility accounts, and can also use it for KYC/AML to open say a crypto account in your name. You cannot do anything to prevent this option.

Have you gone into your bank and asked about additional security measures? For my credit union, I have a call center password I have to give them and mom's maiden name is not mom's maiden name. I think—I'd have to double check—but I think I had them put a note in my file that I would have to go into unlock my account and show 2 forms of ID

Because SSN are the main way that banks and credit agencies use to identify people (which is not at all what they were intended for originally).

If you know somebody else's SSN plus a couple of semi public details (name, date of birth, address), you can go to a bank and borrow money under their name.

American infrastructure uses SSNs as a form of authentication for sensitive things like bank accounts, medical records, loan applications, housing applications, etc. With a SSN, it is much easier to steal someone's identity.

in croatia there is a personal identification number as well as the unique birth number of citizen (my transaltion). the latter is what you describe and the former i think is similar to the us ssn. the former should only be known to you. you use it, for example, when you sell your property or apply for credit. i think it is a huge fraud risk, especially in times of airbnb, because at least in croatia this is written on your id and passport and the national health card

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