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There is universal agreement that identity theft is one of the trends in crime in the technological age. Identity theft not only can rob a person of his/her financial resources. It can destroy one’s name and reputation. In the case of medical identity theft, it can be a matter of life or death. An identity thief can use a stolen identity for medical treatment which eventually can harm the person who true identity was used.

Government agencies and law enforcement have warned people to shred documents and zealously guard their social security information. Unfortunately, there are government agencies who have not been listen to these suggestions - or perhaps, these government agencies simply ignore the suggestions of other branches of the government:

“…The nation’s Medicare agency and the Pentagon want at least 52 million Americans to carry their Social Security numbers in their wallets, contrary to warnings by the Federal Trade Commission that people should avoid doing so.

At least 44 million Medicare insurance cards include the beneficiary’s full Social Security number. The number also appears on 8 million Defense Department identity cards used by active duty and reserve forces and their dependents, and on identification cards issued to military retirees. The Pentagon, however, plans to remove the numbers but won’t complete the effort until 2014.”

link: US contradicts itself over its own ID theft advice

It is bewildering that citizens are encouraged to carry their social security numbers with them. It is simply dangerous.

One would think that, in a technological age, to change the individual identifier should not be such a monumental problem. With the projected time to complete this project, the next President of the United States will have finished serving a term of office.

With so much emphasis on national security and protecting citizens from harm, this is an insult to every American citizen.

Catherine Forsythe

Tags: crime, government agencies, identity theft, security, social security numbers

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