U34 – Hacking the Social Security Number Scheme — Part I of II
0:04
Hi, everybody, this is John Jay.
0:05
Today, I’m going to be talking about some trivial facts trivial matters regarding the Social Security number.
0:12
It’s the reason why I began learning, the subject that I understand, you know, risk management, tax situations, liability, the judicial system, legal system.
0:22
I began learning all that just because, in the early nineties, I believe that having a social security number created all kinds of obligations. And I wanted to get out of that.
0:32
And so I, I went and found some people that were claiming that they could surrender the Social Security number.
0:42
And so I wanted to explain kind of the information found myself after going through that process. And by the way, there’s no way to surrender the number, it’s not yours. So I want to arrive at that conclusion. I’m going to show you high arrived at that conclusion, and I want you to understand the nature of the system.
1:01
I think it will help you understand, maybe, better, what we’re looking at facing.
1:07
In the near future, maybe the blockchain is going to replace the SSN system not to scare anybody, but just being practical here.
1:15
So I’m going to do a share screen, and I’m going to show you some, some history here.
1:24
So when I started looking at this Aye.
1:30
After I went through the whole process of submitting surrender documents, it was like 28 pages of legal, legal mumbo jumbo to the Social Security Administration and other government agencies.
1:43
Of course, that doesn’t do anything.
1:44
What, what happens is, OK, the Social Security number is simply a number. It means nothing other than it’s a number.
1:52
And if you associate that number with asking for benefits or other activities, receiving money, for example.
1:59
That’s when you have some implications with government agencies. OK, that’s when you bring in the IRS and things like that.
2:06
So that the, the strategy would be that if you want to emancipate yourself from that system, you just simply stop asking for benefits and stop using that number. And that’s the trick.
2:17
This is what, what people don’t understand how to do.
2:19
And so, when I first decided to not use an SSN, I still wanted to have a bank account. Now at that time. In the early nineties, I was able to go and negotiate my way through the front end, people at the bank, and get accounts open.
2:35
Then after a couple of years of that, toward the mid nineties, it became more difficult, and I realized that it’s not going to be sustainable.
2:42
So I figured I will just learn what’s going on. Let’s just break this system down. And so, this is what I looked at first.
2:48
So I found this somewhere, I don’t remember where I found all this information, but probably came from, I vaguely remember the National Security Agency.
2:59
And it had published this scheme here. Now, there’s a similar scheme for your driver’s license information. I’m not going to get into that today. and the method of generating these numbers I’m going to show you right here, came from the Navy, Some Navy mathematicians, OK came up with this. This is what I understood.
3:16
But, anyways, I’m showing you a summary from the Social Security ministration. You can see, this comes right from the SSA.
3:22
No, its own website, in fact, I just grabbed this this morning, it took me one second. I just guessed and I searched on SSN number and I got this so, it’s not hard to find on the Internet.
3:33
OK, now, I remember back when I did this, there was no easy access on the Internet, OK, only really. Scientists and government offices were on the internet, OK, back in the nineties, and science people, in college students, and things like that.
3:50
All right, so, as you can see, they started this thing in 19 35. It was supposed to track money. Really, its intent was to attract people.
4:00
There was something that covered this in the Privacy Act of 1974, if you read the Privacy Act of 1074, there are implications here.
4:08
It is useful to some extent, that, basically, the Privacy Act of 1074 explains what privacy you don’t have, right, So, the only privacy you’re gonna get, if you want to use an SSN is really, you gotta stop using the SSN.
4:20
You gotta stop asking for the benefits and participating. So let’s just look at this. You see how it’s all broken apart.
4:27
By states, back then, it was divided into states. So states for allocated numbers.
4:33
Now if you’re, if you keep this in mind, your SSN, the format of it has a three digit and then a two digit in a four digit. OK. Now, this is how the, this is why they’re broken apart, is how they’re broken apart. The area pertains to the state in which the number was issued, are allocated or blocked, or reserve K for each state. The area number than the groups within that state is the are the middle two digits.
4:53
And then there’s a serial number, just whatever it comes up next, and the sequence.
4:57
And so, this was my understanding back in the nineties, so that if I were to create a number for purpose, banking purposes, usually, I want to make it to where the number is valid. There are actually some numbers that are not valid.
5:09
Like, for example, I think the 999 number area number is not valid, it’s been reserved or something. And there’s some other ones in there, like 6, 6 0, or something like that. I can’t remember 67 or something like that.
5:20
In any case, up until 20 11.
5:23
This is the scheme, this is how they did it, when I say Scheme, I’m talking about the method of doing it and I still look at it as a scheme. It’s a scheme in the stereotypical sense that it’s just a fraudulent scheme. OK, so, the way of doing this is that each state was allocated the number.
5:36
And it was presume that you would have a number where you were born. So, for example, a number I used a while back, since my 20 something years ago.
5:48
There was a question that came up at a bank about the use of the number, and because I understood where the number was assigned, because it was a number I had created for banking purposes. OK, I understood how to answer the banks questions, and that was fine, and I did what I needed to do. So, it was helpful to know the background information about where the number came from.
6:07
So, anytime we needed to create another file for some purpose, a credit file, for example, using an SSN, it was helpful to know where the number or the person lived at, when he was 12 years old or younger, and then that were able to create a number or, or select a number.
6:27
That was issued after the person we’re trying to work with.
6:30
Let’s say, for example, a client of mine trying to find a number that was issued after he was born. We don’t want to issue it.
6:36
Have an number issued where it was issued before the person was born, and then he goes to the bank to try to open an account.
6:44
And then the bank checks the number against his name, and that was called the Death Index. And it looks really odd, like, why would the number be issued before the person was born, right? So, there was a couple of Considerations like that.
6:56
So, this was my basic understanding that I can look at this table here, and I can say, All right, well, if my client, if I could reasonably say he was born in New York or Michigan or whatever, I know that my range of area numbers is going to be 362 to 386. I know, you guys can’t, I can’t point to it really well on the screen, but you can see right here in the middle, versus, like Michigan, and Massachusetts, and things like that. They’ve got their area numbers. And so, I would start there with the area number. And then, I would look at the range of group numbers. Now, the group number, I could select at random to try to find something. So, I might, I might pick 3 or 4 numbers.
7:29
If I’m going to create a new credit file, the reason why would create a credit files.
7:34
Maybe someone’s in a very difficult situation, and we can’t find another solution, too, Fixes credit. So, we want to abandon the old file and start a new file.
7:42
That would be, one, use The other use like, that, I did for myself was because, I just didn’t want to use an SSN. I just saw it as immoral. And so, I didn’t want a number that was allocated for that purpose.
7:54
I don’t mind using a nine digit number because it wasn’t allocated, I wasn’t asking for benefits under that number, I was just using a number for banking purposes. OK, I wasn’t trying to cheat anybody or anything like that, I wasn’t trying to steal someone’s ID.
8:06
So, this is how the scheme works.
8:09
You can see, let’s see here, you got Puerto Rico, They’ve got different group numbers here, You can, you know, she’s got a little bit information you can read through this, Really it’s, all I did was search on SSN number and Google. I used duck duck go by the way.
8:24
And then you can see here, there’s more information, I think, see, see here, they have specific numbers assigned to government employees, right, 700 to 728, so you just gotta be aware of things like that.
8:35
Now, as of 2011, you’re going to see here, I’ll show you, The numbers were issued in a random way. They call it randomized.
8:42
Gives us a little more flexibility.
8:44
Now, we’ll tell you, I guess, this discussion here, this explanation really is kind of about understanding the origin of this scheme and also how we’re using it in a practical way.
8:56
So, you’ll understand, it’s not there’s nothing illegal here. We’re not trying to trick anybody. We’re not breaking any laws.
9:02
However, using this information, you could use it to commit a crime. And, of course, my clients don’t do that, and I tell them that. I’m not going to help them if I, if I have any feeling whatsoever that, they’re going to use this information to commit a crime, so ID, theft, or something like that.
9:19
So in any case, you can see, there’s a bit of information, but check it out, It’s 1 Y 2 pages, right? It’s, it’s not much information. This is a really nice summary of all the research that I had to go through from the NSA to try to arrive at this table. And then, from here is kind of a guide now.
9:34
We get into this other, I’m gonna flip over to this next website I already have set up, write to the Social Security Ministration. OK, again, now, notice how that was, an old documents, a PDF file, that gets scanned in, I don’t even know what date 982.
9:46
So, all right, so here we’re going to go into the into the present time, or on a website with live information.
9:52
And this is going to tell you a little bit more about the randomization changes they made from 20 11, OK, 10 years ago.
10:01
And you can learn how it works.
10:03
Now, the SS a secured ministration sells information to employers so you can actually pay for a service that validates numbers.
10:11
So this is why, if you’re using a social security number or OK, if you’re using a nine digit number as an SSN, where an SSN has to be disclosed on a government document, like a W four, or a 1099, or anything, under an OMB approved document under penalties of perjury.
10:32
You cannot use not a nine digit number as your SSN, unless it actually is your SSN.
10:39
It has to have been assigned to you by the Social Security registration, otherwise, you’re going to problems.
10:44
It’s not going to check out because there are services that check to see like your employer would check to see the valid SSN connected to your name.
10:54
They don’t even need your card, really some some need your card, because they don’t have a subscription with the Social Security ministration.
10:59
As you’ll see, this is actually a business, It says business services online. They’re actually providing services for, for money to companies, like payroll departments that want to validate this information.
11:11
And if you’re going to sign a W four, you want to use the correct information so that you’re not going to be subject to backup withholding.
11:18
This is where you run into problems with not providing the correct EIN or SSN. You could be subject to backup withholding and I’ll give you the citation real quick.
11:26
This all relates to different things, but, um, since we’re talking about trivia here, Title 26 USC Section 34 oh 6, OK? That has to do with backup withholding.
11:36
You probably wanna check that out, so I’m not going to get into all this great detail here, but you can see there’s some interesting nuances here.
11:46
All right, here we get into employers, like I just mentioned, OK, they’re providing services for validation, things like this.
11:55
Now, here, it says this data is for informational purposes, We’re very careful about, know, why this information is being released. It is public record.
12:03
How this is functioning, right.
12:07
So, again, you can see here, we have the modern version of this list I just showed you from 19 82, OK.
12:13
So let’s scroll down.
12:16
Look what we have down here, since the randomization took place, We started ending up with things like this.
12:22
We have a range of area numbers that would have normally been assigned to a state, but are not anymore, they’re randomized.
12:29
So you’ve got a 587, 588, 580, 990, all the way to 665, a huge range of area numbers. Now, I want to show you some interesting map here. And I guess lately, we’re doing some algebra site.
12:42
You know, I was talking my algebra last time on calculating your principal for the crypto exchanges.
12:49
Now, I’m going to show you what’s called an algebraic combination.
12:52
And we all know that the SSN EIN is nine digits, they are formatted differently.
12:58
I mean, I think the IRS looks at people in 1 of 2 ways. Either you’re an EIN, or your, you know, an employer, or you’re an employee with an SSN. And that’s why the formatting is different. But either way, you still have a nine digit number. So if you have a nine digit number, the question is, how many combinations of those numbers can I have?
13:16
This is going to be an interesting understanding, because, think about how many people are alive today in the United States, just just talking about geographic area in the United States.
13:25
How many people are alive that are US citizens? Right? It’s about 330 million people.
13:32
So if I do an algebraic combination on this number, so we have the area number, that’s three digits, then we have the group number that’s two digits. And then we have our serial number. That’s four digits. So we have a nine digit number three. Yeah, nine digit number.
13:45
So, because I have nine digits, my exponent on this algebraic combination is going to be nine.
13:51
And because each digit gives me 10 combinations, 10 possible combinations 0 through 9, I’m going to have 10 to the ninth possible numbers I can make with the SSN in the format the way it is now. So, what is 10 to the ninth, It’s a billion.
14:08
One billion dollars, Not more. Not one more, it’s one billion, OK, 0, 0, 0, 0, Those are all within 99999, OK.
14:19
There are a few blocks, OK, like, check it out here, Like this, you can use 587 to 665, It just says, Not issued, I’m gonna show you how to verify that.
14:29
So, you’ve got these huge blocks that apparently have not, are not issued, I don’t believe that’s correct.
14:32
I think that after some date, people that have used a member, this is from 19 35, we’re almost approaching 100 years, like what, 85 years into it right now?
14:40
So, we’ve had probably three generations of people already, just people using nine digit numbers as SSNs.
14:48
This doesn’t count for trusts.
14:51
Mean some people have 20 trusts, right, with ions. What about corporations? What about small businesses that were formed and never nothing ever came of them, right? And ions for obtained for those businesses and then they were just abandoned or those that are still operating.
15:05
I mean, we’re way over a billion in use.
15:09
So, you gotta ask yourself, well, wouldn’t it make sense at all the numbers that are possible to have been issued, used or have been used?
15:17
Yeah, it’s true, And I think that there’s an aging process.
15:20
Once a person, whether it’s a corporation or a human being, stopped using the number, I think that number’s retired in some way.
15:26
And I know it’s being used for securities and all this stuff, traffic persons, and all this, I understand all that, but I think at some point, that number is retired, or then recycled back. And I think that’s where you get these not issued numbers.
15:40
Now, the real truth here, that if you just don’t know much about this stuff, you can just guess a nine digit number.
15:48
You can create a credit file by applying for credit with your name, your legal name, a nine digit number, and an address provided that that combination of information has never been used before in a credit application.
16:03
Different address but, same name but different SSN, right?
16:09
Same date of birth.
16:11
You apply for credit, then you’re gonna get denied because no credit has ever been applied for what that combination of numbers information.
16:20
Once you get denied, that means a new credit file was created for you.
16:24
For that. Let’s call it person, and this is how we create a whole new file. So the trick on it is, let’s assume that every nine digit number we can possibly use is being used by someone else right now. We have to make that assumption because, statistically, it probably is true.
16:38
Um, we just have to make sure that at some point the file we’re creating and rebuilding doesn’t get merged with someone else’s activity. Now I had that problem early on and I was able to get out of it by correcting the file action to actually write a letter to Equifax and say, No, this is not my data. You merge data somehow, and it’s incorrect, and they would fix it.
16:59
Ironically, if you can believe that, OK, this, there’s nothing wrong with doing this. We’re not trying to cheat anybody.
17:05
And you can use a nine digit number of your choice for a credit file.
17:10
You cannot use a random nine digit number, or any other nine digit number as a social security number, OK, so that’s the key.
17:18
You don’t need a social security number for credit, you just need a nine digit number. That’s all they care about, and for that purpose, I can take that number and open that, a bank account, or many other types of accounts.
17:29
I cannot use that number and name combination, if it’s not an validly assigned SSN to my name, I cannot use it for applying for an, an, EIN, for another entity, OK, the applicant has to use a valid SSN that was assigned to the applicant.
17:45
So, some limitation on it. In any case. You see how this works, right? Look at 707, 28. OK, remember we just mentioned that we go back here.
17:54
That was reserved.
17:55
Remember, here we go. Right? That was reserved.
18:00
And here we see it.
18:03
We see it again. It’s, it’s reserved.
18:07
OK, Railroad.
18:11
Now, I don’t know what innumerate enumeration at entry means. I bet, it doesn’t really matter. So, let’s go in here. I want to talk about disclosure now.
18:18
I’ve, I’ve been in situations where I’m working with clients where, just because of the incorrect or failure to disclose a tax number on a form, just because of that, it led to audits. And there’s no cause for this, because I’ll explain a couple of things here.
18:34
There’s no, there’s no cause, or reason to penalize someone for not using an SSN or an EIN. And when I say one, I mean both.
18:46
There is no disclosure requirement for an SSN.
18:51
There’s no disclosure requirement for an EIN. You’re not required to use one. OK, moreover, you’re not required to have one, and to test this out, I wrote a letter to my Congressman when I was in Arizona.
19:00
And I asked for a law that requires somebody use or apply for obtain an SSN as a condition for working. And I got a letter back saying, no, there’s no such law that requires a US citizen to obtain or use an SSN as condition for employment.
19:14
And likewise, there’s no condition for disclosure. So here’s how this works.
19:18
There’s no dis the condition for disclosure of an SSN at your job.
19:22
You can even sign a W four and put all zeros for the SSN. And the problem with that is the people in accounting and personnel that they don’t understand how to deal with that. But if they were following the law, the way it works is like this.
19:36
I’m going to show you the law right here.
19:38
If you don’t disclose the number or if the number is wrong, you run into this situation.
19:42
OK, there’s a, here’s the regulation, now, the statute is entitled 26 of the United States Code, Section 6109.
19:51
The regulation that gives you way more detail about how this works is, right here, I’m showing you, it’s 26 CFR, Part 3 0 1.6109 dash 1.
20:01
We’re going to scroll all the way down. I’m not going to get into all this boring detail, but we’re gonna get into some trivia here.
20:07
Section C, and it’s lowercase C right here, all right.
20:12
I’m just going to summarize it for you. You can what? You can read it. You can look it up. It’s very easy.
20:15
Basically, it says, if someone is going to pay you money, he can ask you for your tax number.
20:25
If you tell him that you’re not going to give him your number, or that you don’t have one, you don’t even have to have one, Whether or not you have one is irrelevant. You can just tell them, I have one, and I’m not giving you one, or I’m not giving you one. I’m not disclosing it, or I don’t have one, It doesn’t matter. That person has to then tell you that you’re required by law to disclose one.
20:43
Now, you’re never required, by law, to go get one for that purpose, for any purpose, actually.
20:48
But he’s required by law to tell you that disclosure is required by law, but it’s not.
20:53
It is not, there is no disclosure requirement. It just says that he has to tell you that when I say he, I’m talking about your employer or somebody who’s asking you for an SSN.
21:01
Like sometimes your doctors, they ask you for that stuff now if you’re, if you’re asking somebody for credit like a bank, you have to give them that information because that’s their only means of checking your credit. right.
21:13
Technically, though, if you don’t give your SSN to a bank, it can still check your credit, but what it will do is use your name and date of birth to go get your SSN and then check.
21:24
So, just be aware of that because sometimes people think they’ve got a bank account open with no SSN. But, really, what the bank did is use your, your name and date of birth to check its database references to get your SSN. They didn’t, just didn’t tell you that, OK?
21:36
So, they’re supposed to tell you, it’s required by law disclosure is, and then if you still say no, that you’re not giving one or you don’t have one, the request store is then required to come to provide an affidavit stating that it asked for the number and didn’t obtain the number from you, for whatever reason.
21:58
Then submit that affidavit with whatever document. Like, for example, at W four. That’s how it’s supposed to work, OK? You can’t be fired. You can’t be denied employment for not having a number.
22:08
But of course, we’re dealing with bunch of uneducated people, they think they know the law, and they’re just a bunch of form jockeys and here we are, so I just want to go with this detail.
22:15
I’ll mentioned there’s the other aspect to this.
22:20
Why I said earlier, when it comes to not disclosing a number, there’s no penalty for that. Now, there used to be a penalty, I don’t remember.
22:28
I think it was under 672. If I remember, you can look it up penalty for not disclosure, non disclosure of an SSN.
22:36
This is considered, it was a $50 penalty has been like that for since the seventies, I think.
22:41
Um, it’s considered a de minimis failure de minimus failure. That’s a Latin word. That means minimal. It’s not really worth talking about.
22:50
OK, and the entire Latin phrase that I’m going to explain to you here, means that the law does not concern itself with trivial matters.
22:59
So, when you don’t disclose an SSN or you put the wrong SSN on a document and it creates all this drama, just realize that the failure to disclose a tax number of any kind SSN, EIN, or the disclosure of an incorrect one, which can be corrected, by the way.
23:13
OK, if there’s an incorrect one, you want to correct it with a W nine, OK.
23:19
It’s called a de minimis.
23:21
It’s a failure that is a de minimis, non curate Lex de minimus non curate Lex and all.
23:29
That means is that the law does not concern itself with trivial matters, so the incorrect number or no disclosure isn’t not grounds for a penalty.
23:40
It’s not cause for an audit, but some of you may have experienced this situation, so I just want to let you know you have this, the laws on your side She should look it up. That may help you.
23:51
Now let’s get into that: The validation process: So if I’m going to create a new file for somebody, I understand all this information, OK, and I go to this service here now, It’s It’s nice that someone put the service together. This is a free service. It is limited. I believe, they let you do five inquiries per day.
24:09
Um, there are other free services you can look around for them. There are paid services. So if you’re, if you’re ADP, OK, that handles employment records for Employers, then you’re gonna have a subscription with the Social Security Ministry, and it’s that simple you, Otherwise, you’re not going to be able to function properly.
24:25
And those guys process, not applications, but they process validation, request and badges. They do computer batches. Nobody sits here and types out information. They just batch process everything, OK, but I’m gonna show you how to do it manually. So, we’re looking at someone’s website called, the SSN validator. And if I, let’s see if I pick a number, let’s say, if I go, I’m gonna, I’m gonna pick this here. I’m gonna pick this range, I’m gonna start with 667.
24:50
OK, I’m just gonna start with 607, and I’m gonna come over here, And I’m going to see, I’m going to validate it. Somebody goes, 6, 6, 7. 9 didn’t make up a group number.
25:00
Let’s call it 10.
25:01
And I want to make up a sequence, a series, so let’s call it 14 20.
25:06
Just made that up, and then, yeah, except whatever. Let’s see if it, let’s see what it tells me here.
25:12
Search and, Oh, it’s going to make me go through all this stuff. OK, so we got motorcycles. Alright, sorry about that.
25:18
Let’s see if we can get past this. All right? So, let’s search.
25:23
You’ll get 1 or 2 responses.
25:26
one is going to say, Hey, this number’s not being used.
25:30
OK, so what this is saying, now is the number I just typed in at random.
25:35
The report is today and the number was issued in the state of Georgia. They still tag it. There’s a lookup table that tags it by state.
25:45
And it was proximately issued about 20 years ago.
25:49
And according to the government, it has been issued. In other words, someone’s using this.
25:53
Now, what I like to do, OK, so it’s not in the death master file now this SSDI death master file. This is what the bank check or any creditor or a lender will check to make sure that number is not been reported to someone who died.
26:09
That’s a dead giveaway, A dead giveaway that the numbers are not valid if you walk in there, right, OK, ’cause you should be dead. Alright.
26:16
Now, it’s supposed to be a valid number, but remember, it’s been issued. That doesn’t mean you can’t use it. I would recommend not using it.
26:24
It makes your life easier because if you use it, you’re gonna run into the possibility of your file being merged. And if you’re creating a new file, it’ll be merged with somebody else’s file and it’s kind of a nuisance to that person and yourself.
26:35
I had that briefly once, and it went away, but let me just look here. So if I’m gonna search again, let’s just say I’m gonna go, I’m gonna say that you did the same area, number 6, 6, 7.
26:45
And then I’m going to say 12 and I’m gonna say 15 0 2.
26:49
And let’s see what happens here.
26:52
I’m not going to do this all day. I just want to try a couple of. Alright, so hills and we’re going to get this right here.
26:57
I feel like I’m being tested.
27:00
Let’s see if I can get this right.
27:09
Now, it’s not going to show me, OK, so this one has also been issued.
27:12
I don’t want to do this too long, but basically, if you come up with a number that officially has not been issued, now I believe it’s already been issued and retired and then re-issued. So, there could be a number. You want to keep doing this until you get a number that says, it’s not been issued. It’ll say that right here, issuance status, and there’ll be a little paragraph.
27:30
Like, right here, it’s like two lines.
27:33
The one that says it’s not been issued is bought 4 or 5 lines long. So, just so you know, if you want to check that out.
27:41
So, that is generally some trivia about social security numbers, how they’re issued, what is surrounding their use and how.
27:55
They may be involved in creating an audit situation or a penalty and if you know the law, you can explain that there is no penalty if you know, you know, address it to the right person, personnel or whomever.
28:07
So hopefully this helps dispel a lot of rumors.
28:09
I will re-iterate that, I’m gonna make sure I didn’t miss anything, but I’ll re-iterate that.
28:15
You cannot surrender the number, OK? It is literally a number no one has ownership of numbers. You can’t license out the use of the hashtag five, OK?
28:23
But, if you associate that number, this, if you associate it for a government program, for benefits associated with a government program, or specific purpose, like a legal, legal condition. If you associate that number in a certain way, well, then it will be treated that way. So, that is the key: Stop associating with that number or using it to associate with other things you do activities you’re involved in.
28:45
OK, Yeah, I’m, I’m glad I looked here.
28:47
So, Now, the one thing I did, miss, I want to explain.
28:58
The question you should have is, Gosh, John, if it’s Likely that my number that I’ve had since, you know, it’s an actual SSN, it’s likely that someone else is using it. Yeah. Somebody’s actually probably using it, it could be an EIN.
29:10
It could be, it could be a tax number with some bank of securities somewhere around the world. Who knows?
29:19
But here’s how the IRS does makes a distinction between the number that you’re using and someone else who may be using the exact same number.
29:30
That may cause problems.
29:31
So, here’s what the IRS does in its database, and you can check this.
29:35
You can use transcript request form, IRS, Form 4506 dash T, I believe you can get this information.
29:44
What they do is Khan, Khattak, eight, concatenate, I believe it’s concatenate.
29:50
They add the first four letters of your last name to the beginning of the SSN in your individual master file.
30:00
And that is extremely likely to be a unique number and here’s why, let’s go back to the old algebraic combination. OK, so for each letter, like, say, the letter A, of the alphabet.
30:09
I can, if I have that position in a sequence, the letter A has 26 possibilities, right, A, B, C, D. Right.
30:17
And then if I have four of those, I have, I have 26 to the fourth number of combinations I can use, That’s a huge number. I mean, you guys can figure it out.
30:27
So if I multiply 26 to the fourth by 10 to the ninth, look at how many probably it’s that we’re talking in, the trillions of combinations.
30:33
You can have at least hundreds of billions, maybe, but probably trillions, probably more. So that really solves the problem. So that’s how the IRS makes that distinction.
30:43
No, it doesn’t need to be that’s internal, by the way.
30:46
That is not happening in the real world, your SSN name and date of birth is that creating that uniqueness in the real world when you’re dealing with banks and so forth, and using a number. Like, everybody normally uses the number.
30:58
All right. So, I hope that helps. I probably have to do a part two. But anyways, a little bit of trivia for you.
31:04
Thanks for watching.