Rant.

I am soo so annoyed right now. I'm from Canada, married an American, did all the paperwork etc and got a legitimate SSN last summer.
At the time Social Security told me that they had just started issuing SSNs starting with an 8, previously any SSN starting with that was invalid.
Now I CONTINUALLY run into MSC that say my SSN is invalid. I can't even count how many companies I couldn't sign up with since their system was auto and said it was invalid. It's so maddening.
Market Force made me fax them the number.
ICCDS system says it is invalid.
GFK made me call them and give it to someone
STN now won't let me take any more assignments without giving it to them and their system refuses to recognize it. I called them and I all get is an answering machine, now I can't schedule their shops on my route out of town tomorrow.
I refuse to give my SSN to any more people without at least some level of security, so that means STN is out for me now.
These companies really need to update their systems, it has been a continual nightmare, and will be to anyone else issued an SSN after June of last year.
They aren't the only ones either, I've had this problem with credit bureaus and similiar sites, saying its invalid.
Ugh!

That is a royal PITA. I don't know that there are any easy answers for you.

@minuet -

Just out of curiosity.. Do you talk to anyone in PM's who may be going to the Conference in Chicago? (or if you are going)

Maybe you could try and get someone to talk to some companies and find out how to go about getting their platforms updated.

Tossing it out there - never know!

Well just got off the phone with Second to None, and I guess I did my last assignment for them today. Its sad because I liked their shops, the reports were easy and they bonused fast.
The woman I talked to said that their SSN verification is done through a 3rd party who only uses one credit reporting agency to verify the SSN, so if I/someone hasn't build up enough credit with that agency, the SSN will come back invalid.
She said I could give her the number over the phone and she could manually enter it.
First of all, it's absurd to use a 3rd party that uses only one agency! Secondly, I'm not the one only this has happened to according to her, yet she says that is the system they use and they aren't changing it.
I explained to her how insecure it was to give my SSN over the phone and I could not do that, and she replied that it was my personal opinion and I don't have to give them the SSN over the phone, but I would be unable to complete any more shops for them from this point.
Like what? Am I justified in feeling more than a little upset about this? They expect me to ignore one of the most basic rules of preventing identity theft, because they use a poor system in the first place. I must either risk my identity, or stop working for them.
While the case could be made that it isn't a big deal to tell someone my SSN, that isn't really the whole point here; and any security consultant would tell you a big emphatic NO to that idea.
Goodbye STN.

r@inyDayZ3 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @minuet -
>
> Just out of curiosity.. Do you talk to anyone in
> PM's who may be going to the Conference in
> Chicago? (or if you are going)
>
> Maybe you could try and get someone to talk to
> some companies and find out how to go about
> getting their platforms updated.
>
> Tossing it out there - never know!

Nope, haven't talked to anyone going to conferences. It'd be lovely if companies would improve their validation systems but based on the response I got today - completely closeminded to an improvement - they won't be interested in changing.