Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 29, 1995 TAG: 9505010015
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
A coalition of consumers, conservatives and the American Civil Liberties Union fought to remove the Social Security number, arguing that the number was the key to a person's history.
``It can be copied down by every clerk and every person you show your license to,'' said Jean Ann Fox, president of the Virginia Citizens Consumer Council. ``It's easily ... forged, stolen ... What else does a crook need?''
Experts say that armed with a Social Security number, thieves are able to gain access to medical files, criminal records, credit reports, bank accounts and academic transcripts. They can adopt a person's identity and ring up tens of thousands of dollars in bills before anyone is the wiser, leaving the victim to clean up the mess.
TRW Inc., the information systems company, estimates that the abuse of stolen and intercepted Social Security numbers results in hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud a year.
According to Fox, 40 other states now use a different ID system on their licenses or at least allow drivers to pick a different number.
Virginia has required motorists to provide their Social Security numbers since 1968 and printed them on driver's licenses since 1972. Despite the complaints of critics, the Department of Motor Vehicles maintained it would be prohibitively expensive and an administrative nightmare to make any change.
Under Gov. George Allen, the department agreed to compromise legislation. Although the Social Security number will remain the primary ID, starting Sept. 1, drivers can ask that a computer-generated number be printed on the license itself.
Not everyone is satisfied with the change.
Store owners complain that the change will make it easier for thieves to pass bad checks.
William H. Coiner, president of the Virginia Retail Merchants Association, predicted many of the state's 28,000 merchants either will stop taking checks from patrons who don't provide a Social Security number or will use computer systems that trace the new driver's license number to a Social Security number for credit-checking purposes.
``I wouldn't take a check from you, not knowing you, without your Social Security number,'' he said. ``The only people we can imagine that this legislation would benefit would be crooks.''
by CNB