Comment Number: 531096-00043
Received: 8/3/2007 6:06:45 PM
Organization:
Commenter: Bill Matherly
State: OK
Agency: Federal Trade Commission
Rule: Private Sector Use of SSNs
No Attachments

Comments:

With the growing threat of identity theft especially online, it's apparent that the government needs to develop a new structure that keeps our dealings with the government (ie: Paying our lawfully due taxes) and the private sector (ie: car, home loans, credit cards etc) should be kept completely separate. Perhaps a system where an agency issues randomly generated id numbers or identities that are used solely for the purpose of private sector purchases. If for any reason this id becomes compromised a new id could be issued within a matter of moments, with a simple phone call or some other type of correspondence. Once the new id is issued, anyone attempting to use the older id will be denied the ability to open up any type of credit account, keeping the person directly affected, safe from any fraudulent charges. This id should be more complex than the standard nine numeric system (ie: xxx-xx-xxxx) and should be replaced with an alpha numeric pattern that can not be easily memorized by those who use it. One could even go one step further, and in addition to the issuing of the new id, the person whom the id is issued to could offer to further save guard their id by setting up a special "access pin code" that too should be complex and alpha numeric, so when they go into a private sector business and attempt a purchase the merchant could check a website with the id, and of course should be prompted for a password, the issuer of the id should be able to provide the password and if it's the right one the merchant can feel confident that the transaction they are about to conduct is authentic and they are dealing with the correct individual and the issuer can rest assure that no unauthorized third party could get away with conducting fraud on their behalf. Adding stiffer legislation against scam artists and people who commit fraud does very little against those who live beyond the borders of the United States. Online crimes are growing more difficult to prosecute as "hackers" are becoming more sophisticated in disguising the origin of attacks thus making local and federal law enforcement's job more time consuming and in most cases yielding null results. So in closing, the only way we are going to combat the problem with identity theft and other criminal uses of social security numbers is by removing the SSN completely out the equation. Bill Matherly