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Pay Pal requests SS#?

fotografz

Well-known member
Recently, Pay Pal sent an e-mail requesting a tax number or SS#.

Evidently this is a legitimate Pay Pal request as indicated by logging onto your Pay Pal account.

Having been a victim TWICE of Identity Theft, (a real nightmare), I am VERY reluctant to put my SS# out there on another worldwide site that could be hacked at any time, no matter what they say about security.

Your thoughts or opinions?

-Marc
 

BANKER1

Member
I'm with you Marc. No way, no how!. You do not need Pay Pal that bad. There is no legitimate reason for Pay Pal to need your social security number. The only reason we have social security numbers in the first place is for the federal government to extract the last penny of taxes they want. So I would not give out my social security number to anyone if I cannot prove to myself that they need it for tax reasons.

Greg
 

fotografz

Well-known member
I'm honest and pay every penny due to the IRS because it isn't worth it to save a few bucks and then have them hound you to your grave. "Render unto Caesar ... ", and all that.

I don't do anything on Pay Pal that the government needs to snoop-dog their greedy, spend thrift nose into ... nothing that constitutes a profit requiring reportage or the like. Even if I did, it's on me to report it at tax time.

On the other hand, proliferating one's SS# out into the void is just asking for ID theft.

Wonder what the consequences will be for not complying? Is Pay Pay required to report non-complience to the IRS? And what can of worms experience with the faceless IRS juggernaut will that personally trigger if true?

-Marc
 

Greg Lockrey

New member
DO NOT TRUST ANYTHING you get from what you think is PayPal or anybody else that asks for SS #'s, bank accounts, or anything else. They are scammers looking to rob you. You heard of identity theft haven't you? This is how they do it. I don't do PayPal because someone was able to get into my bank account and buy a ticket from Rome to Berlin.... I haven't been in Rome in 35 years. Good for me I check my credit and banking accounts daily and caught it in time.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
The only thing they've asked me for is the last four digits of my SS# as part of a security check code in the case I've forgotten my password. I have no problems putting that in ... it's just as security sensitive a number as my credit card number, after all.
 

BANKER1

Member
The first three digits of your SS# are given out based on the region of the US where you live, and the second two digits are related to your birth year. They even have programs that can figure out your last four digits. So I'd even have problems giving them the last four. Just my two cents.

Greg
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
The first three digits of your SS# are given out based on the region of the US where you live, and the second two digits are related to your birth year. They even have programs that can figure out your last four digits. So I'd even have problems giving them the last four.
Certainly. And anyone willing to pay $50 to $150 for an in-depth person reference check at any accredited agency will obtain your SS# and lots of other supposedly "private" data about you too. Privacy does not exist, has not existed, since the early 1990s.

I find all this paranoia somewhat misguided. I've been a Paypal.com subscriber for a decade, done thousands of transactions with them, and have never once had any problem at all. I consider using Paypal to be as secure as using my local bank (if not moreso!), provided I take appropriate care to be sure that my connection to the network is always secured by sound encryption protocols.
 

BANKER1

Member
Certainly. And anyone willing to pay $50 to $150 for an in-depth person reference check at any accredited agency will obtain your SS# and lots of other supposedly "private" data about you too. Privacy does not exist, has not existed, since the early 1990s.

Agreed, but it is our responsibility to be ultra diligent in bandying about our private information. And I'm not sure you can get a credit report without a social security number that is required when requesting one. Besides, "phishing" succeeds every day by imprsonating legitimate sites. They can be very convincing.

Greg
 

Greg Lockrey

New member
The first three digits of your SS# are given out based on the region of the US where you live, and the second two digits are related to your birth year. They even have programs that can figure out your last four digits. So I'd even have problems giving them the last four. Just my two cents.

Greg
I'll go with the first three digits being the area but the second two.... no way. Everyone in my family (parents and children) have the same first 5 numbers.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
There is no legitimate reason for Pay Pal to need your social security number.
Actually, there is... Paypal, at least up until recently, paid you interest on the amount of funds in your reserve account. The interest is 1099-able to the IRS as income, and your SS is needed for that.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
I believe the IRS is behind this request.
This is correct.

And it is not a red herring ... it is on the Pay Pal site.

Pay Pal will be required to send you a 1099-K if your total reaches $20,000.

However, they are requesting the tax ID or SS# of anyone who shows decent activity that could be projected to reach $20,000.

IF you do not comply, Pay Pal will suspend your account and not allow any transactions ... BUT, get this ... you will NOT be able to close the account.

I think this includes freezing totals in your account that you have not transferred yet. !!!!!!!!

They state that "Personal" money is not counted, but if I subtract that, I'm nowhere near any "trigger amount".

What has brought my total transaction amount up is using the Pay Pal option on sites such as B&H Photo.

For other transactions where I sold used items, a 1099-K will require finding all receipts of purchase for those items sold using Pay Pal as payment in order to show that there was no profit.
This would be an accounting nightmare as some items were bought used, and others were bought years ago.

I will NOT give these people my SS#, and I will no longer accept or use Pay Pal for any transaction. As luck would have it, I just transferred my outstanding balance and am at $0.00

Beware people.

-Marc
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Certainly. And anyone willing to pay $50 to $150 for an in-depth person reference check at any accredited agency will obtain your SS# and lots of other supposedly "private" data about you too. Privacy does not exist, has not existed, since the early 1990s.

I find all this paranoia somewhat misguided. I've been a Paypal.com subscriber for a decade, done thousands of transactions with them, and have never once had any problem at all. I consider using Paypal to be as secure as using my local bank (if not moreso!), provided I take appropriate care to be sure that my connection to the network is always secured by sound encryption protocols.
Among others, it was the "banks" that just robbed the American people of Billions ... why would you trust them?

While I may have some level of trust in Pay Pal security, I don't trust them any more than some major credit card companies ... and they have been Hacked ... as have banks and insurance companies.

Paranoia isn't about legitimate sources using private information to confirm identity, it is about it getting into the wrong hands who mean to do harm.

I was recently ask for a SS# to confirm a coupon transaction at Macy's ... and refused to give it to some low level sales clerk that could easily steal it and sell it to criminals, so they wouldn't honor the coupon. I will no longer shop at Macy's.

If you have never had your identity stolen, then you have no idea what grief rains down on you. It takes months and months to clear up, even years because the crooks will continue to try, and until it is cleared, you are treated like a criminal that is trying to defraud the companies involved.

-Marc
 

stephengilbert

Active member
"I was recently ask for a SS# to confirm a coupon transaction at Macy's."

Just make one up. Macy's isn't going to ask to see your SS card (if you even have one).
 

fotografz

Well-known member
"I was recently ask for a SS# to confirm a coupon transaction at Macy's."

Just make one up. Macy's isn't going to ask to see your SS card (if you even have one).
They check it against our Macy's account to confirm identity before honoring the private discount.

They don't need me to give some part-time clerk access to my SS# to do that. Who knows who that person really is, or what they could do with that type info? Same thing with credit cards numbers stolen by restaurant employees ... except my legitimate cards are protected against such fraud.

On the other hand your SS# opens up all sorts of possibilities to criminals ... like opening a new credit card in my name and charging thousands on it before discovered ... which is exactly what happened to me ... they opened 5 cards and ran up almost a 6 figure total before the crime was discovered and the accounts closed. Were it not for an alert security department of one card company/bank that actually called me, it would have been more.

All this went on my credit reports with all three credit report companies while under investigation, and took a huge effort to get expunged. A real nightmare.

-Marc
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Trillions, but who's counting? Investment banks. Not the local banks who were victims of Wall Street greed like everyone else.

As someone else said, just give them a fake one. You don't have to always tell the truth when you don't trust the person whom you're giving information to. Making up a telephone number or a SS# is not a lie, is not morally wrong. It is amoral .. it is something you do to get things done and is neither right nor wrong.

But I can see there's no point to debating this issue. Your mind is made up ... you don't trust Paypal, you won't give them the information they require, if they actually require it. So just don't do business with them. Not a big deal.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Trillions, but who's counting? Investment banks. Not the local banks who were victims of Wall Street greed like everyone else.

As someone else said, just give them a fake one. You don't have to always tell the truth when you don't trust the person whom you're giving information to. Making up a telephone number or a SS# is not a lie, is not morally wrong. It is amoral .. it is something you do to get things done and is neither right nor wrong.

But I can see there's no point to debating this issue. Your mind is made up ... you don't trust Paypal, you won't give them the information they require, if they actually require it. So just don't do business with them. Not a big deal.
As usual, no one reads in their hurry to counter point. THE MACY's EXAMPLE: they wanted the SS# to check against our Macy's account info ... giving them a fake one would have triggered security.

-Marc
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
As usual, no one reads in their hurry to counter point. THE MACY's EXAMPLE: they wanted the SS# to check against our Macy's account info ... giving them a fake one would have triggered security.
So you trusted MACY'S with your SS# and you won't trust Paypal.com!?? That doesn't make any sense to me at all. I didn't realize that you had already given Macy's your SS# ... !!! Why wouldn't you trust their representative if you've already handed the company the keys to your identity?

I don't trust store credit accounts. They're usurious, slimy bastids ... I don't normally use credit for anything, but I can get MUCH better credit terms from the crooks at VISA and AMEX, never mind from my credit union, than from any store account.
 
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