SSN Overlap With Micronesia Causes Trouble For Woman 494
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the not-my-problem dept.
from the not-my-problem dept.
stevel writes "Holly Ramer, who lives in Concord, NH, has never been to the Federated States of Micronesia, but debt collectors dun her mercilessly for unpaid loans taken out by a small business owner in that Pacific island nation. Why? Micronesia and other countries in the region have their own Social Security Administrations which gave out numbers to residents applying for US disaster relief loans. The catch is that the Micronesian SSNs have fewer digits than the nine-digit US version, and when credit bureaus entered these into their database, they padded them out with zeros on the front. These numbers then matched innocent US citizens with SSNs beginning with zeroes, as many in northern New England do. The credit bureaus say to call the Social Security Administration, the SSA says call the credit bureaus, the FTC says they can't help, and nobody is taking responsibility for the confusion."
Wouldn't have happened in Polynesia (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why do "credit report agencies" have immunity? (Score:5, Funny)
Eventually someone is going to revolt against someone somewhere.
Thanks, Nostradamus.
Re:what i would say (Score:2, Funny)
Finally, an opportunity! (Score:4, Funny)
I was born in New York and have a 081- SSN. I think it's time to take out a bunch of Federal loans and blame some lazy Micronesian for failing to repay them. Then I can take the loan money and buy kilos of cocaine^Hdollar bills with the money, resell the dollars and really make some good cash.
1. Be born in the North Eastern United States
2. Take out loan
3. Exploit confused system that can't separate foreigners from natural citizens
4. ???
5. Profit!
Re:what i would say (Score:3, Funny)
"...the loud dad noise"
So you will fart on them?
Re:Why do "credit report agencies" have immunity? (Score:5, Funny)
The Hitchhiker's Guide defines Collection Agencies as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."
Re:Debt Collectors are Morons (Score:5, Funny)
Re:what i would say (Score:5, Funny)
Re:what i would say (Score:3, Funny)
Brandishing a firearm on your own property when someone refuses to leave = defense of property in almost every state in the Union.
Umm, you might want to be careful there. In several states you are limited to "physical force" to deal with a trespasser. "Deadly force" can only be employed if your life is in danger or they actually break into your residence. I would love the chance to throw a debt collector off my property but I think I'd leave the firearms out of it.
Besides, it's much more fun to watch them puking their guts out after you pepper spray them than it is to watch them bleed to death on your front lawn ;)
Re:what i would say (Score:3, Funny)
Wait for them to step inside and then shoot them. After all, they were stalkers.
Re:what i would say (Score:3, Funny)
You should always own two guns, one registered, the other to plant on the dead guy.
Re:what i would say (Score:5, Funny)
I had one do that after threatening to kill me on the phone. I called the cops and they got there as he was trying to break in. The cop jumped a low brick wall which is around the apartment complex ran to my door and beat the shit out of him.
I'd been playing "Fuck the scammer/telemarketer" by giving bogus CC's, check routing numbers, etc.
Points:
1 point per minute you keep them from calling other people
10 points per fake CC given (enough fake numbers causes red flags)
10 points per fake bank routing +account number (ditto)
100 points for a valid call back number
500 points for a traceable company name from the call back number.
1000 points for death threats
FTW for actual physical encounters.
You have to record the call. You should duplicated the recording BEFORE giving it to the prosecutors office as the asshats passed it around and claim to have lost it.
Re:Debt Collectors are Morons (Score:4, Funny)
My first cell was a recycled drug dealers number. If you think the phone calls coming into a deadbeats number are fun to answer ....
Re:what i would say (Score:4, Funny)
yeah, you need a "beware of the doorbell" sign as well to make it legal.
Re:Simple solution for SSN (Score:4, Funny)
fucking mute point
What, is it a horny mime?
Re:Debt Collectors are Morons (Score:3, Funny)
How do they recycle drug dealers? And how is a recycled dealer different (if at all) from a brand new drug dealer?
Re:what i would say (Score:5, Funny)
1 point per minute you keep them from calling other people.
How many points for forwarding them to the last guy that called you?
Re:what i would say (Score:5, Funny)
Someone with the same last name but not a member of my family claimed our address and phone number as hers. We got her collection calls and repo men looking for the car she didn't pay for. The repo men showed up in person.
They refused to believe she didn't live here. They were quite stunned when I told them to shut up and start suing.
Re:what i would say (Score:4, Funny)
Good luck selling that to a jury.
What, shooting a credit collector that's trespassing on your property and physically harassing someone in person? If only every sales job was that easy...
Re:what i would say (Score:4, Funny)
...if they make the mistake of calling me they are going to hear every four letter word in the English language.
There are some words one just can't justify spewing at even the lowest scum. Words like GOTO.
Not a US Nuclear Submarine incident (Score:3, Funny)
- just in case anybody else read the headline like I did.
Please submitters, avoid local acronyms, or at least expand them in the body. You can't seriously expect us to RTFA?
BTW, does this mean that US social security numbers lack check digits? That would be just silly.
Re:Typical for a collection agency I guess (Score:4, Funny)
Re:what i would say (Score:5, Funny)
With private people, you can do even funnier things.
Assume you have two different men calling you in anger, thinking you're someone else. (May happen when someone banged what they think is their girl, and they also think you're the one.)
Then make each one as angry as you can, offer him to meet in the local gay neighborhood, and beat the shit out of him. At this point, you must have him thinking that he will actually beat the shit out of you.
Tell them both where to meet, and that your identification is a flower in a button hole, or something as camp as possible.
Now you just have to go to a café nearby, watch them beat each other, and call the cops, saying that there is a gay couple fighting on the other side of the street.
(But of course do not let the police find out that you're the caller, or who you are.)
Re:what i would say (Score:5, Funny)
Forceful? Terrible idea. When it goes to court they get to say that you were the belligerent party and their side was "only defending itself". You're better off calling the cops to have them escorted off. First rule of dealing with debt collectors is to let them make the mistakes.
In my state you are allowed to use physical force to remove a trespasser from your property. They'd have a tough time claiming that you were the belligerent party on your own property.
I know someone who manhandled a cable company employee out of his house and onto the street after the employee refused to leave when asked to do so. The cable guy called the cops to report this "assault" and was eventually arrested by them when they determined that he had been asked to leave the residence and declined to do so.
Re:Debt Collectors are Morons (Score:4, Funny)
Re:what i would say (Score:4, Funny)
My cousin worked at a dent collection call center, and I know for a fact that she is always polite and courteous. She even gave many people basic financial advise to help them pay their debts, and now she is in college majoring in "personal finance coaching" or something like that.
Re:what i would say (Score:2, Funny)
I'd live for that day.
As long as the dead body is inside your door transom, it's self defense. Just make sure you replace the calculator in his/her hand with an ice pick, knife, of pistol. The police will more readily accept your self defense claim with a weapon in the dead hand of the 4'9" slight build brunette female on the floor. Trust me on this.
Re:what i would say (Score:5, Funny)
Re:what i would say (Score:2, Funny)
In my state you are allowed to use physical force to remove a trespasser from your property.
In my state (of mind), I use a shovel to keep them on my property.
Re:what i would say (Score:3, Funny)
Do you honestly believe that you can use US law to get back at someone in another country? US laws apply in the US... some other governments are still bent over ready to take it from GW but most countries will tell you where to go.
Re:what i would say (Score:3, Funny)
Three words: Learn to count.
Re:Wouldn't have happened in Polynesia (Score:1, Funny)
In Micronesia, they gave out short SSNs. In Polynesia, they would have looked like x^2+4x-3.
And you can forget about it happening in Amnesia.
Re:what i would say (Score:1, Funny)
Re:what i would say (Score:2, Funny)
I was helping a friend move once, and she clipped the bumper of an illegally parked car (too close to the corner, in front of a fire hydrant) with her moving truck. The owner of the car insisted on calling the cops. They showed up, gave him a ticket for being parked illegally, and another ticket for having let his insurance lapse when they looked that up, too.