Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 17, 1995 TAG: 9504170096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Criminals and others seeking a new identity often use false Social Security numbers to get a driver's license or a state-issued identification card.
The phony documents then can be used to obtain welfare, health care and other public benefits as well as check-cashing and credit cards, Social Security officials said.
Starting May 8, the Social Security Administration will compare its records to motor vehicle records from states that request the service, looking for fake numbers. SSA will report back to the states, which then have the task of catching up with cheaters.
Critics say the plans are fraught with privacy risks, since states could give the lists to police or other agencies, or sell them to credit bureaus.
Phil Gambino, Social Security's spokesman, said the agency shares those concerns but noted that Congress, in the mid-1980s, authorized states to use Social Security numbers for driver's licenses.
Social Security keeps records, including the earnings history, on 140 million working Americans and nearly 43 million retirees. The data, kept in a heavily guarded building in Baltimore, are coveted by collection agencies and private investigators.
In justifying its plans, Social Security said screening motor vehicle records would help federal and state programs, including those providing medical services, cash payments, child-support enforcement and other types of assistance.
Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said there is an ``overwhelming need to have Social Security numbers verified, whether for the identification of tax cheaters, child-support scofflaws, or illegal aliens using Social Security numbers to obtain employment.
``This is a vital component of effective immigration and other law enforcement ... and without it, states will never be able to help enforce immigration laws.'
Fifteen states and the District of Columbia require driver's license applicants to provide Social Security numbers, according to Robert Ellis Smith, a privacy expert in Providence, R.I. More than a dozen states display the number on the license; three states prohibit the use of Social Security numbers for driver's licenses; and the balance make it optional or don't ask for the number, Smith said.
Smith, publisher of the Privacy Journal, a monthly newsletter on privacy in the computer age, said virtually all states sell motor vehicle information to insurance companies and other businesses.
He believes that verifying information is a good thing, but said Social Security's plans could prompt more state motor vehicle agencies to use Social Security numbers. That, he said, would be unfortunate.
``The more you display a Social Security number, the more you open up individuals to the fraudulent use of it,'' he said.
Another privacy expert, Evan Hendricks, worries that the more accurate motor vehicle records will wind up in the hands of credit bureaus.
Hendricks, editor and publisher of Privacy Times, another newsletter devoted to privacy issues, said the decision to screen state records ``betrays the notion that the Social Security number is not supposed to be used for identification.''
by CNB