I dream of the day we are no longer nothing but a numbered slave to the government. EXCERPTS:
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- In April, a ring of identity thieves was busted in Detroit for filing 306 fraudulent tax returns, using the names and Social Security numbers of recently deceased individuals. Filing electronically from local hotels and coffee shops, the family of fraudsters netted nearly $500,000 in illegal refunds.
Before a new law was passed just over a year ago, the Social Security Administration's Death Master File (DMF) was a deep mine of data for “ghosting” crimes -- a relatively easy place from which to steal the names and reputations of the deceased. With the Social Security numbers, dates of birth and death of nearly 100 million deceased people, the DMF was easy pickings. Now, a fee-based certification program has been established to help restrict and monitor access to the info. But crooks are not easily discouraged.
Another database, the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), even without providing Social Security numbers, offers a good starting place for identity thieves to launch their efforts.
The Social Security Administration has long been a leaky faucet of personal information, easily tapped by criminals. Patrick P. O’Carroll Jr., inspector general for the SSA, testified to Congress in March that federal agencies allowed more than $124 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2014 alone. The Numerical Identification System, “Numident” for short, has been the Social Security Administration's weak link. READ MORE ->
- ·
- Report
- ·
- June 3, 2015 5:23 pm
