I Can Get Your Social Security Number

 

This blog is NOT intended to be used for ANY illegal usage, this particular article is to be a warning to the reader and the need to keep private information private. 

As I scan the dark side of the internet looking for information for my different publications I keep running into something that seem obvious yet is hidden in plain sight. Identity thieves and hackers value a Social Security Number above most things. We, the honest folk, stupidly give them enough information so they can in a few minutes have everything they need to get our number 80%+ of the time without us every knowing it or even being able to verify that someone has been snooping.

Facebook, Tumblr, Myspace..... thanks, you gave me most of what I need to know.

Follow the steps

The SSN is made up of nine digits

I need two pieces of information from you
1) Your date of birth. Most people give this out without thinking
2) Where you were born. Once again nothing to hide.


To simplify matters (but not necessarily needed) the last 4 digits of your SSN. Think about how many times you give that out. You do it on websites, all types of applications and just about any and every where. We do this because we think the last four digits are not enough to do us any harm.

There are fine tuned algorithms that will fill in the first 5 digits and rougher ones that will get the last 4 digits (if you have not already given them away) at a fairly high percentage rate.

 An example of the problems that could happen would be a credit card verification service, they recognize the challenges of data entry from illegible forms and usually allow up to two digits of the SSN to be wrong even giving multiple attempts before black listing an IP address. You would assume that they would use a higher protection scheme then just an IP address verification (they are out there) but most if not all do not employ the measurements you would expect.

A good bot computer can go through create and verify 40-60  social security numbers a MINUTE. This is not good news for us average folk. Keep your birth date, place you were born and if older where you applied for your SSN private..... otherwise you may not be so happy one day.



I purposefully left off this blog where you can get the software to do this. My readers are honest people and frankly we do not break the law.

Back Up Your Facebook Account

There comes a time when you realize that your Facebook account holds many things that are important to you. There are pictures, friends list and private messages that you really would not want to lose. I personally needed to find old inbox notes and wall posts so that I could start legal proceeding against a woman who had been stalking me for over a year. The nice thing about this system of back-up is that even if you have blocked someone or they have blocked you the information is still there.

This is the easy and Facebook approved way of saving all of the information that has become your "virtual" life.

1) Under the menu under "Account" Click "Account Settings"

2) Click "Learn More" beside "Download Your Information"

3) You will then be asked to verify your password

4) After verifing your password it will give you the opportunity to download your Facebook account.

It may take awhile for Facebook to format your information and you may have to check back a little later. This does give you access to your old pictures, posts and notes and most everything.