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SSN Overlap With Micronesia Causes Trouble For Woman

Posted by samzenpus on from the not-my-problem dept.

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."

5 of 494 comments (clear)

  1. Wouldn't have happened in Polynesia by e9th · · Score: 5, Funny

    In Micronesia, they gave out short SSNs. In Polynesia, they would have looked like x^2+4x-3.

  2. Re:Why do "credit report agencies" have immunity? by amicusNYCL · · Score: 5, Funny

    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
  3. Re:what i would say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  4. Re:what i would say by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 5, Funny

    1 point per minute you keep them from calling other people.

    How many points for forwarding them to the last guy that called you?

  5. Re:what i would say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    when you get a automated call just play this over the phone... http://www.payphone-directory.org/sounds/wav/verizon/disconnect.wav