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SSN Overlap With Micronesia Causes Trouble For Woman
stevel writes "Holly Ramer, who lives in Concord, NH, has never been to the Federated States of Micronesia, but debt collectors dun her mercilessly for unpaid loans taken out by a small business owner in that Pacific island nation. Why? Micronesia and other countries in the region have their own Social Security Administrations which gave out numbers to residents applying for US disaster relief loans. The catch is that the Micronesian SSNs have fewer digits than the nine-digit US version, and when credit bureaus entered these into their database, they padded them out with zeros on the front. These numbers then matched innocent US citizens with SSNs beginning with zeroes, as many in northern New England do. The credit bureaus say to call the Social Security Administration, the SSA says call the credit bureaus, the FTC says they can't help, and nobody is taking responsibility for the confusion."
In Micronesia, they gave out short SSNs. In Polynesia, they would have looked like x^2+4x-3.
Eventually someone is going to revolt against someone somewhere.
Thanks, Nostradamus.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
I was born in New York and have a 081- SSN. I think it's time to take out a bunch of Federal loans and blame some lazy Micronesian for failing to repay them. Then I can take the loan money and buy kilos of cocaine^Hdollar bills with the money, resell the dollars and really make some good cash.
1. Be born in the North Eastern United States
2. Take out loan
3. Exploit confused system that can't separate foreigners from natural citizens
4. ???
5. Profit!
The Hitchhiker's Guide defines Collection Agencies as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."
No sig for the moment.
When I get an unwanted call I say, "Hold on 1 minute, I'll be right back". Then you leave your phone on and continue to do your work. I never get a second call.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
pull my finger
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
I had one do that after threatening to kill me on the phone. I called the cops and they got there as he was trying to break in. The cop jumped a low brick wall which is around the apartment complex ran to my door and beat the shit out of him.
I'd been playing "Fuck the scammer/telemarketer" by giving bogus CC's, check routing numbers, etc.
Points:
1 point per minute you keep them from calling other people
10 points per fake CC given (enough fake numbers causes red flags)
10 points per fake bank routing +account number (ditto)
100 points for a valid call back number
500 points for a traceable company name from the call back number.
1000 points for death threats
FTW for actual physical encounters.
You have to record the call. You should duplicated the recording BEFORE giving it to the prosecutors office as the asshats passed it around and claim to have lost it.
My first cell was a recycled drug dealers number. If you think the phone calls coming into a deadbeats number are fun to answer ....
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
yeah, you need a "beware of the doorbell" sign as well to make it legal.
fucking mute point
What, is it a horny mime?
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
1 point per minute you keep them from calling other people.
How many points for forwarding them to the last guy that called you?
Someone with the same last name but not a member of my family claimed our address and phone number as hers. We got her collection calls and repo men looking for the car she didn't pay for. The repo men showed up in person.
They refused to believe she didn't live here. They were quite stunned when I told them to shut up and start suing.
Good luck selling that to a jury.
What, shooting a credit collector that's trespassing on your property and physically harassing someone in person? If only every sales job was that easy...
Light a fire for a man and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
...if they make the mistake of calling me they are going to hear every four letter word in the English language.
There are some words one just can't justify spewing at even the lowest scum. Words like GOTO.
You should have given her the number for the Rejection Hotline or the RickRollCall. Not only would you have made her happy (until she figured out what it was), you would have epic lulz to talk about on Slashdot!
Hydraulic pizza oven!! Guided missile! Herring sandwich! Styrofoam! Jayne Mansfield! Aluminum siding! Borax!
With private people, you can do even funnier things.
Assume you have two different men calling you in anger, thinking you're someone else. (May happen when someone banged what they think is their girl, and they also think you're the one.)
Then make each one as angry as you can, offer him to meet in the local gay neighborhood, and beat the shit out of him. At this point, you must have him thinking that he will actually beat the shit out of you.
Tell them both where to meet, and that your identification is a flower in a button hole, or something as camp as possible.
Now you just have to go to a café nearby, watch them beat each other, and call the cops, saying that there is a gay couple fighting on the other side of the street.
(But of course do not let the police find out that you're the caller, or who you are.)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Forceful? Terrible idea. When it goes to court they get to say that you were the belligerent party and their side was "only defending itself". You're better off calling the cops to have them escorted off. First rule of dealing with debt collectors is to let them make the mistakes.
In my state you are allowed to use physical force to remove a trespasser from your property. They'd have a tough time claiming that you were the belligerent party on your own property.
I know someone who manhandled a cable company employee out of his house and onto the street after the employee refused to leave when asked to do so. The cable guy called the cops to report this "assault" and was eventually arrested by them when they determined that he had been asked to leave the residence and declined to do so.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
well for one the recycled drug dealer has been killed, powdered, and fed to another drug dealer
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
My cousin worked at a dent collection call center, and I know for a fact that she is always polite and courteous. She even gave many people basic financial advise to help them pay their debts, and now she is in college majoring in "personal finance coaching" or something like that.
The government can't save you.
when you get a automated call just play this over the phone... http://www.payphone-directory.org/sounds/wav/verizon/disconnect.wav