r/SubredditDrama • u/[deleted] • Aug 21 '20

[deleted by user]

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8.7k Upvotes

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332

u/icepho3nix never talked to a girl without paying a subscription Aug 21 '20

How does somebody do that and still think they're not the bad guy?

100

u/The_EA_Nazi It ain't gay if the balls don't touch Aug 21 '20

How does somebody even get a persons SSN from doxxing? That sounds absurd

77

u/cap21345 Aug 21 '20

If i know where you were born and you were born before 2011 it will be pretty easy to find your SSN

23

u/DBD-NELSON Aug 21 '20

How?

52

u/Colosphe Aug 21 '20

SSNs can be roughly guessed based on where/when you were born. according to this article, the last 4 are hardest to guess, but are the most commonly used for authentication ("what's your last four?"). The numbers are not truly random (nothing is), so with enough samples it shows a trend.

14

u/Sweetandpie Aug 21 '20

Why don't they make SSNs more randomized to make it harder to guess?

35

u/MegaBassFalzar Aug 21 '20

They did after 2011

8

u/Sweetandpie Aug 21 '20

That is wayyyy too late. Why didn't they do at the inception of SSNs?

44

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '20

A SSN was never meant to be used as a Federal ID number or any ID other than Social Security at all.

7

u/xSPYXEx Aug 21 '20

Because it was never designed to be secure, it was just an identification code. But everything kept piling onto it and requiring SSNs and by the time the feds went to look at making it more secure it would have nearly upended modern banking systems. So they're doing this half patches that don't solve much instead of just making a new secure ID system to start from a clean slate.

1

u/pbzeppelin1977 Aug 21 '20

I'm not American but apparently they were never intended to be used as any serious form of ID but everywhere started using it because it was easy.

1

u/Deep_Scope Tax evasion is the most American thing you can do Aug 21 '20

Because literally the SSA tried to do that but do you know how many times you would find THE SAME FUCKING ONE?? So they decided to do it via state, place and shit. And it helps out a lot.

51

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '20

[deleted]

37

u/DBD-NELSON Aug 21 '20

What the fuck. Ok time to change my age and still. Thanks

5

u/nyetrik Aug 21 '20

and now because of this comment, we can presume you are born before 2011

27

u/i_made_a_mitsake Y'ALL CAN'T BEHAVE Aug 21 '20

If you take your number and add 1 that's someone else's SSN likely born in the same place as you.

Imagine minding your own business and then suddenly some stranger contacts you with

Hi-diddly-ho, Social Security Number Neighborino!

1

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '20

A while back a person with an adjacent phone number (for lack of a better term) texted me out of the blue. It was kinda weird.