A New High In Customer Stupidity. Or: How Someone Lost Their Identity

[ralerin]

Working at Aid of Rite, lots of people don't want to keep the inserts that come with their medicine and either try to leave it in a carriage or ask us to throw it out. One problem: That insert contains their name and medicial information. On a weekly basis, I have to tell someone "We have people who dig through our trash. Do not give that to us, the pharmacist will shred it for you". Then they get mad at me and throw it in the big trash can out front. Whatever. I badly badly want to take someone's info one day, Google it, and send them a nasty phone call at 3 am, but that would involve legal repurcussions. No thanks.

Anyway, I'm just a cashier and I have to tell people this, which is stupid enough.

Today, a new high (or is that low?) in customer stupidty was reached.

A guy pays for his order of a drink and a few other things, totaling about $9. He hands me a $50. I flip the $50 over and gawk.

There was someone's Social Security Number on it.

Let me repeat that.

Someone had handwritten their Social Security Number on the back of a $50 bill.

"...Is this your SSN?!?"

Guy looks at it and goes with me. "Nope!"

"...Wow. Just how dumb do you have to be?"

Even if this wasn't a world of easily Googleable anything, I think most people know that writing a piece of extremely personal information, like your SSN, on the back of an easily spendable, loseable piece of paper such as a $50 is the worst idea, ever.

[Food Lady]

Yeah, but to do anything, you'd have to have the # and the name that matches it, wouldn't you? Though I can't fathom why you'd write that # anywhere.

[Hanzoku]

Noooo, I'm pretty sure with just the SS#, you can find the rest of the information with the aid of the internet and one or two shady or savvy people. In fact, five minutes of searching with the phrase 'social security number lookup' netted me links with the ability to use the SS# to find if someone's ever been in the public records, when and in what state it was issued, or hiring someone to do the legwork for me.

So that was really, really, really dumb to do.

[downforit2008]

People are pretty stupid if they want to consider writing down their SS number on the back of legal currency. Did the idiot really think no one was going to notice that? And with all the whiners going on and on about identity theft these days, I wouldn't be surprised if someone used this person's Social Security number for whatever they wanted.

There's no telling how many places this $50 bill had been by now.

[dragon_wings]

And then there's the possibility that the person that wrote it on the $50 didn't write their own SSN but someone else's.

[EricKei]

And then there's the possibility that the person that wrote it on the $50 didn't write their own SSN but someone else's.

Good point. I can see someone doing that as a means to get "revenge" on someone.

[hornet95]

Or just writing a random ###-##-#### on it. You know, 427-38-5243.

On second thought, that sounds like a fun idea.... See what kind of reactions I'd get.... with $5s, not $50s....

[ralerin]

Or $1's. If I were mean enough I would stick the phone numbers rather than the SSN's of my enemies on the backs of those. Or for extra hard heartedness, both. But I have no enemies.

ETA: For those wondering, I scribbled out the SSN before I handed out the $50 to a guy wanting cash back.

[RetailWorkhorse]

If I were mean enough I would stick the phone numbers rather than the SSN's of my enemies on the backs of those.

"For a good time call at 3am and talk NASTY to me"

I wanted to do it with the DM of my DollarTree store. Had the marker and everything. Was gonna put it in all the men's bathrooms I could find. Sadly, even though my SM at the time was also very angry with the Dickweed, she wouldn't let me do it.

[bainsidhe]

I went to Orange Apron a few years ago for some random doohickey. The cashier rings me up and when the receipt prints, she takes a black marker and crosses off a line of text. When I asked her what she crossed off, she sighed and explained that some glitch was causing her SSN# to print off on Every. Single. Receipt. Apparently management was "working on it", but hadn't figured out a resolution. I don't know why I never complained on the employee's behalf, I feel bad about that now. How hard would it have been to log her in as someone else, so that her personal and financial identity wasn't displayed to the world? Doesn't matter if you use a marker, just hold the receipt up to the light and you can read off the hidden numbers.

[Kogarashi]

Doesn't matter if you use a marker, just hold the receipt up to the light and you can read off the hidden numbers.

This is why I always scratch out such sensitive information with a black ballpoint pen. Between the heavy layers of ink and the physical distortion from the ballpoint, I have yet to find a way to read what I've scratched out.

[Hanzoku]

...I'd have refused to work as a cashier until they fixed that crap. Seriously, the minimum wage job is not worth handing my SS# to everyone I check out.

[Geek King]

To be fair, there are places on the web where I can type someone's name in, then find their SSN most times by address. Hiding your SSN is like locking your car doors: It will stop crimes of opportunity, but it won't stop a determined thief.

[Andara Bledin]

This is why I always scratch out such sensitive information with a black ballpoint pen. Between the heavy layers of ink and the physical distortion from the ballpoint, I have yet to find a way to read what I've scratched out.

I do the same. Lines in three directions and swirls for the round bits and by the time I'm done, it's just a mass of mess.

To be fair, there are places on the web where I can type someone's name in, then find their SSN most times by address. Hiding your SSN is like locking your car doors: It will stop crimes of opportunity, but it won't stop a determined thief.

Information propogation has gotten to the point where it's starting to tip to it being better to keep your information public (so anyone can do a spot check from anywhere and confirm that you are you) rather than keep it all private since private these days doesn't work. Especially when nearly all stolen identities are done either electronically from the source (stolen bank/credit/employee/etc info) or randomly (brute force attacks until something works).

^-.-^

[MoonCat]

Use a black marker on things like that to cross out the number. Then turn the paper over and use the marker AGAIN on the back of the same place. Pretty much obliterates it.

Or better yet, if you can, shred it.