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If a thief gets ahold of my name and address, but has the wrong social security number, (say it's off by one digit) will this protect me?

They may try to open an account in my name, and there's a risk that someone would be stupid enough to "correct" them, but otherwise, will this prevent them from harming me?

Is there still harm they could do, with a partially correct number?

anotherguy
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  • If your SSN is wrong, they would not correct it ? On what basis, they would get your SSN ? They cannot find your SSN based on your name and address. There are rules which prohibit such search and there is no way to find out SSN based on this information. – tech_enthusiast Mar 06 '18 at 03:59
  • @JModi from the wording, I suspect that the OP is being asked to supply his SSN for some reason but wants to give a fake SSN to prevent identity theft – schroeder Mar 06 '18 at 10:02
  • @schroeder lol. Then that would be ethically wrong for me to answer the question. :D – tech_enthusiast Mar 07 '18 at 00:07
  • @JModi ethics need not be involved - some places ask for SSN as a unique identifier and not for official reasons – schroeder Mar 07 '18 at 08:32

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There are some cases where one has to enter the last four or five digits of their SSN to do something on an account. Assuming this person hijacks such accounts and knows or could feasibly guess those last digits, then they could do damage.

You don't have to worry about someone ascertaining your SSN from your name and address for the reasons J Modi pointed out. Additionally, companies and agencies who have your SSN on file would not "correct" someone pretending to be you. Why? Because the penalty would be severe. Secondly, that's not how authentication works; e.g., it would be like a website granting someone access because the password they input was kind of right, but not really.

If you really believe identity theft is on the horizon, you may want to read this article: https://faq.ssa.gov/link/portal/34011/34019/Article/3792/What-should-I-do-if-I-think-someone-is-using-my-Social-Security-number