It's a dumb move, because publishing the SS#s of the deceased is intended to decrease fraud. And it certainly doesn't mean a thing if Ancestry.com blocks access when the Social Security Administration itself doesn't.

Someone or something in Chicago is going to get a lot of votes.

This is stupid. Publicly available death records make identity theft harder by making the dead obvious. SSA should have an 800 number where you call, enter an SSN and get a dead-or-alive response. Checking the SSDI should be standard procedure during credit checks, employment verification, voter registration, etc.

Isn't it the SSDI - Social Security Death Index that publishes this SSNs?

Rev. Creflo Baller: This is stupid. Publicly available death records make identity theft harder by making the dead obvious. SSA should have an 800 number where you call, enter an SSN and get a dead-or-alive response. Checking the SSDI should be standard procedure during credit checks, employment verification, voter registration, etc.

and i'll get to plug in any combo of numbers until one gets returned as "Alive"!

brilliant!

Smiths: Rev. Creflo Baller: This is stupid. Publicly available death records make identity theft harder by making the dead obvious. SSA should have an 800 number where you call, enter an SSN and get a dead-or-alive response. Checking the SSDI should be standard procedure during credit checks, employment verification, voter registration, etc.

and i'll get to plug in any combo of numbers until one gets returned as "Alive"!

brilliant!

Right, because knowing only that a given number belongs to a living person really helps you hijack bank accounts.

Thats an 827: Isn't it the SSDI - Social Security Death Index that publishes this SSNs?

The list is available for purchase but they do not put it on line. Others, like ancestry.com buy it and put it on line

Lydia_C: It's a dumb move, because publishing the SS#s of the deceased is intended to decrease fraud. And it certainly doesn't mean a thing if Ancestry.com blocks access when the Social Security Administration itself doesn't.

Would it surprise you to learn that the SSA does not publish the list online??

Why does any company still use Social Security numbers as a means of identification? (Except the SSA itself)

The number of companies that keep them means it's not really secret anymore ( mad 'cause I had to provide one to get an account with my city water service and I know how incompetent the city workers are).

Tell you what, when I'm dead you can all steal my identity and defraud every bank and credit card company out there.
You have my blessing.

There is a government site that lets you look up dead people by name/location/year and it gives their full social. Not sure how long the turn around is though.

I used it once to get my grandpa's social to call a utility company that still had the account in his name.

All they did was make it a pay service. It wasn't altruistic, it was the usual greedy corporate bullshiat we've come to know and love in this country.

The line of work I'm in uses these functions extensively as we pay benefits to many elderly people and being able to quickly verify the death of someone is the difference in no collections and having to collect potentially tens of thousands of dollars of overpayments from grieving family members. Let me tell you, those calls are really not a lot of fun to make. It doesn't matter if gramps didn't deserve those 3 months of payment since he was dead, his wife doesn't want to hear that shiat over the phone when she just lost her husband of 50 years.

The government agency which used to send out SSDI lists to state pension systems and the like has ceased that function too. It's almost like they want people to have an easier time defrauding our country's pension systems. That's really what 50 underfunded and about to go bankrupt state pension systems need right about now.

My company has found a somewhat suitable replacement for the time being, but it is solely a web search function and we no longer receive the weekly lists that likely prevented millions of dollars going out the door that should not have.