Second issue after illegally obtaining your SSN, is the obtaining credit information (even if using a different means) and that is the constitutionality of using your credit history as a means to qualify you for the sale of a product. If a product or service is offered for sale, what relevance does your credit have to do with that purchase of goods or services?

This I believe to be a strong case on both counts.

If an insurance company is THAT concerned about getting their premiums paid, then they should offer it on a month to month basis to alleviate this apprehension, instead of offering a year or 6 months worth on a “payment schedule” that they are worried about.

One would think that using the persons drivers license for car insurance would be more congruous with car insurance to begin with.

I also believe because of CNN’s far left bias, that Fox News would be a far better service to the cause. Especially since they carry Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.

Once you have all the information you feel is necessary to bring a suit against any Insurance Co. The best line of defense would be to go the Class Action Law suit, where by you and hundred, thousands of others would be given the chance to join in the fight and to also find the best of the best “Lawyer” You’ll notice I have that in quote’s cause we know how “Lawyers” are these days ??

Now I’m not saying it’s impossible to sue an Insurance Co. infact your chances are pretty good so long as you have all the needed information to fight the fight as where by your able to persuade such Insurance Co, and put them on notice so that they understand you have the necessary information to persuade any Jury in the court of law in your favor would be inclined to settle out of court and try like hell to have no admittance of wrong doing and believe me they’ll try there hardest to achieve there goals if there allowed.

For those who maybe interested in filing such a claim, would be in their best interest to make contact with place like the Cato Institute, or Heritage Foundation, or Constitutional Lawyers like Mark Levin or others of his caliber to represent yourself on a Pro-Bono basis or receive payment only if you were to win the case would have a pretty good chance to change the way Insurance Co. work with regards to using a persons SS #’s , it would even be worth one’s time even though the Insurance Co. were allowed to ot admit and wrong doing, JMHO….

You can refuse to give your social security number to anyone who is not legally authorized to have it as provided by the United State Code 42.

Anyone who compels you to divulge your social security number that is not authorized to have it, is engaging in a criminal act and as such can be charged and penalized according to our laws.

Any private company or business who wants to do a background or credit check on you can do so with your drivers license or any other form of ID.

A company can refuse to provide you with their services for any reason they wish. It is their right to do so. Buy your products and services at another place that doesn’t violate the privacy act or USC 42.

Is anyone doing anything about this flagrant invasion of privacy ? It doesn’t appear so. It takes the general public at large to write, email, call their local state and federal representatives telling them to STOP this invasion of privacy and SSN abuse.

My part is to inform you as best I can so that enough people are made aware of the problem and start flooding the offices of our “elected” officials so they can stop this activity. We hired them with a vote, we can fire them with a vote. As with any good company, if you hire someone to do work for you, and they don’t live up to their resume, and their job performance is below what is required, they get fired.

Americans need to understand, this is true in politics. You hired them, if they don’t perform to your requirements, fire them.

It only takes a vote.

I am not aware of any petitions against this violation of USC 42 or or against the illegal authorization given to private companies to gain access to our credit information.

It has gone unchallenged for too long.

Educating the public on these problems is an essential step toward putting a stop to it.

I also think it’s wrong for any company to require a credit check for employment other than the banking industry. The way I see it, my personal affairs are just that– personal.

Thanks for this comprehensive article– I sure hope you’ll update those of us who are now aware so that we can start to organize and act against this new form of bullying! I’m utterly outraged right now.

I’d like people to note that in the case of Florida, the state Insurance Commissioner, state Fire Marshall, and state Treasurer are the same person. This was true about 4 years ago, so I am not sure if it is true at present. Why is this information relevant?

It is a huge conflict of interest. For example, The state Fire Marshall sets the minimum requirements that businesses must meet in order to operate in the state of Florida under the state fire code which usually adopts the National Fire Code (NFPA codes http://www.nfpa.org/categoryList.asp?categoryID=124&URL=Codes%20&%20Standards)

The insurance companies (governed by the state insurance commissioner) then charge you a premium for their policies and in those policies mandate that you must be in compliance with fire codes in order to maintain coverage. The insurance companies can charge anything they want for their policy and the state can mandate you meet a specific minimum requirement no matter how high that minimum is. Obviously an insurance company pays fees to the state to be able to operate in the state and the state in turn help the insurance companies make more money by setting a higher minimum code requirement to meet.

This same scenario exists with all types of insurance in the state, home, auto, flood, etc.

In the case of auto insurance which the state requires by law that you must carry, the insurance companies can now charge as much as they want to insure you since it is required by law that you be insured. They scratch each others back, and you pay for it. This also means that the general population must be of a certain level of income in order to afford the different insurances, which raises the states statistics on “average household income” which does many things for the state, including qualifying the state for federal monies in many forms such as grants and other means of revenue.

This means that under achieving homes (income wise) eventually can not afford to live in the state because of the “minimum” requirements in all forms that must be paid for by the consumer.

If you can’t afford to pay the insurance on your auto, home, business, etc., then you cant afford to live in that state and obviously you would lose the licenses, home, or real estate.

Add on top of all that, these insurance companies now violate federal law that governs who can and can not have your social security number, and can now use that social security number to perform a credit check on you. If you lawfully refuse to give your social security number to them, they can refuse you a policy. No policy, no coverage. No coverage, well…you get the idea. It spirals down hill so very very fast.

As far as suing someone for not being able to afford the insurances, or for demanding your social security number against federal law, I suppose you could try and sue the state, or an insurance company. But with the insurance companies in the back pocket of the state insurance commissioner, do you think you would have a fair chance of winning? The whole situation is soaked in the blood of conflict of interest and corruption. THe only way to change this, is by a vote.

A vote hires your elected representatives and state officials, a vote can also fire them.

Although this seems like a good idea to the insurance companies and other companies who do credit checks (which used to be just banks and credit card companies) as a means to increase their profit after risk analysis of debt ratio’s and credit scores, the only reason that any of this is possible is because no one anywhere is enforcing the law against SSN abuse.

see http://dragontail.wordpress.com/2007/04/25/social-security-number-abuse-and-violation-of-your-privacy

What has been inadvertantly created is a way for corporate America to send hundreds of thousands of people to the gutter. But then maybe they do realize this and can see that in a short period of time, their only customers will be the wealthy in America.

So..who is going to care enough to finally put a stop to any medical group, any business, any corporation from using your Social Security Number to verify your credit and who is going to be fed up enough to put a stop to credit checking for every thing you do in this life?