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How to Protect Your Identity: Stop Giving Out the Last 4 Numbers of your Social Security Number

Joshua Dorkin
1 min read

protect identityI’ve always had a problem with financial companies asking me for my personal information. I’ve always done my best to get around giving information like my social security number as a means of verifying who I am when on the phone with any financial institution. This weekend I had a realization about protecting your identity and it relates to something many people do every day: Stop giving out the last 4 digits of your social security number!

The whole point of companies asking for the last 4 numbers of your social security number is to protect you and your identity.

The irony of this is that the last 4 numbers of your social security number have now come to replace the entire number (9 digits). If all it takes is those 4 numbers to fully access, modify, or alter a financial account, then isn’t giving those 4 digits out the same thing as giving the entire number out?

I never give that information out and urge you to do the same.

When the logic behind our account “security” makes no sense whatsoever, isn’t it time to make a change?

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.