Your Social Security number sits on the heart of your monetary life. Employers use it, lenders test it, and scammers attempt to steal it as a result of a single nine-digit ID can open doorways to jobs, credit score, taxes, and well being advantages. With main breaches within the headlines and tens of millions of information uncovered, treating your SSN like a password you by no means share will not be sufficient. 

You’ll be able to pay for monitoring, however there’s a harder, free line of protection you management: lock down your SSN and pair it with a credit freeze. Blocking digital entry to your quantity makes it a lot more durable for criminals to go employment checks or open accounts in your title, and a freeze stops new credit score even when somebody has your particulars. There’s additionally the choice of an identity protection service if you’d like additional assurance. 

It provides a bit friction to your life, however when you have handled id theft or your info was caught in a breach, that additional barrier can stop actual injury.

Don’t miss any of CNET’s unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome.

The best way to lock your Social Safety quantity

There are two methods to dam entry to your Social Safety quantity.

Name the Social Safety Administration

You’ll be able to contact the SSA at 1-800-772-1213 between 8 a.m. and seven p.m. native time, Monday by Friday. Wait instances are often shorter within the morning and later within the week. When you verify your id, the SSA will wave its magic wand and block digital entry to your SSN.

Create an E-Confirm account

You may also create a MyE-Verify on-line account to lock your SSN and use the service’s self-lock feature. The lock will final one yr. However you may be alerted 30 days earlier than it expires, and you may prolong the lock should you select.

This useful resource is useful as a result of many employers use E-Confirm, a service administered by SSA and the US Citizenship and Immigration Providers, to test your employment eligibility.

If you lock your Social Safety quantity, an organization seeking to confirm your SSN will not be capable to confirm your id, stopping criminals from committing fraud. This feature can also be useful should you do not need to choose up the telephone each time you need to unlock your SSN.

The draw back of locking your SSN

The principle downside to locking your SSN will sound very acquainted to anybody who has a credit freeze in place. If you block entry to your SSN information, you additionally prohibit your entry to it. This implies you may should undergo the effort of unlocking it everytime you want a brand new employer to confirm your eligibility to work within the US otherwise you need to obtain authorities advantages. 

This backwards and forwards could also be value it to people who’ve suffered from employment identity theft and tax fraud. For added safety towards tax id theft, you’ll be able to create an identity protection pin with the IRS to forestall another person from submitting a tax return along with your SSN or particular person taxpayer identification quantity.

What is the distinction between locking your SSN and a credit score freeze?

A credit score freeze is totally different from a Social Safety quantity lock, although each are free. One blocks entry to your Social Safety document on-line whereas a credit score freeze restricts entry to your credit score studies. To conduct a credit freeze, you may have to contact all three main credit score bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) to cease anybody from creating new credit score accounts in your title.

Will locking my SSN defend me from id theft?

The reply right here is fairly unsatisfying: it’d. Locking your Social Safety quantity can stop employment id theft or cease a prison from amassing authorities advantages in your title. But it surely will not stop all types of ID theft. As an added precaution, it is best to share your Social Safety quantity solely when it’s completely needed and by no means on an unprompted name or textual content message.

It is also a good suggestion to watch your monetary accounts and your credit score studies for any uncommon exercise. For those who’d choose to have a service to do that for you, you’ll be able to join a credit monitoring service or an ID theft protection service. You’ll be able to usually enroll in credit score monitoring to keep watch over your credit score studies. ID theft safety usually contains credit score monitoring in addition to darkish internet monitoring and alerts in case your info is compromised in an information breach. In case your id is compromised, id theft safety will help you get well it by white glove restoration providers.

For additional safety, you’ll be able to freeze your credit score with Experian, TransUnion and Equifax to forestall id thieves from opening new traces of credit score in your title, like a mortgage or a automotive mortgage. I did this just lately and located the method surprisingly easy.

Extra recommendation on defending your id