Sovereign Commentary: Some of the most important news stories on the web with accompanying comment. Special attention to China, Illegal Immigration, the growing Police State, and the slow death of the Constitution for the United States of America with special focus on First Amendment and Second Amendment issues.

Misappropriation of Your Social Security Nos. Can Ruin Your Credit and Lead to IRS Harassment, IRS and credit bureaus know, but do nothing

Story dated 29 January 2005

"During 2002. . . 9 million people paid taxes with mismatched names and Social Security Numbers." Most of these "represent illegal immigrants using a stolen or manufactured Social Security number at the workplace." This is a common problem. Even more perplexing than the problem itself is the fact that the government and credit industry (who profit from such identity theft) either by design or apathy keep consumers like you or me from even knowing that our SSN has been misappropriated until it is far too late. By too late, I mean that, by the time you find out, you are being harassed by creditors or by the tyrannical IRS for debts that you allegedly owe. Debts that you have no knowledge of because you did not incur them. Even more disturbing, both credit bureaus and the IRS know that your number has been misappropriated long before you do and they make no effort to inform you. "James Huse Jr., former inspector general of the Social Security Administration, said it is unlikely the agency will ever inform potential victims." "A spokesman for the Social Security Administration said the agency simply couldn't disclose the information to consumers because doing so would run afoul of federal law." The arcane Internal Revenue code forbids people from seeing if "anyone else has reported earnings under their Social Security number." That's nice. The IRS has no trouble garnishing your wages, putting a lien on your property, seizing your bank account, and threatening to send you to federal prison, but they are afraid of violating federal law if they tell you of the misuse of your SSN. Credit bureaus also keep quiet because of 'privacy concerns'. These people are pathetic. They are content to stay quiet as long as they are making money from the deal, but as soon as the identity theft incurs debts and disappears, they want their pound of flesh from you. To me this sounds more like willful omission with intent to defraud consumers. Credit bureau and IRS employees that participate in such omissions ought to be sent to prison.

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