Fake Social Security numbers stolen, chosen
Amos L. Fisher of Graham, N.C., was surprised to learn that the Social Security number of his wife, Alison, was used by a masonry worker laboring on a dormitory building project at the University of Massachusetts.
She died 10 years ago.
``I wonder how they got it," said Fisher. ``People are so devious. They think of things I don't."
In its examination of 242 workers' Social Security numbers on payroll records, the Globe turned up matches to eight people who had died, some of them decades ago.
A worker who helped build the Littleton Middle School earlier this year gave a Social Security number that belonged to Guy Coon of Elgin , Ill. Mr.Coon was born in 1888 and died in 1972. Another worker on the school project gave a number that matched that of Madge Irons, of Providence, who would be 126 were she alive today.
It is possible the workers got those numbers from someone who mined public records in search of deceased people's numbers, specialists said. But it is equally likely the immigrants could have made them up, unaware that anyone else possessed the same number.
Sometimes document dealers get numbers from stolen cards or by trolling databases.
``There are as many examples of how people do this as you can think up," said Marc Raimondi, spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington, D.C.
One laborer who worked on a project at the Country and Woodland Elementary schools in Weston in 2002 gave a Social Security number that belonged to Kimberly Etscheid, a personal injury lawyer in suburban Chicago.
Etscheid, 32, said she thinks she lost her Social Security card a decade ago when her wallet was stolen in a Chicago restaurant. But she had no idea someone was using her number until 2004, when she sought her credit rating and learned that a man on the East Coast had been presenting her number as his. She learned the man was a masonry worker paid with public money when called by the Globe last week.
Her credit rating has not been affected, she said. Still, she said someone should do a better job of making sure that workers do not present bogus or stolen Social Security numbers.
``Obviously, someone's not doing their homework," she said. ``It's really strange that years later, my Social Security number was being passed around somewhere . . . The government should be checking up on it."
Anthony Ciulla, a Gloucester house painter, said he found out two years ago that his Social Security number had been used by a D'Agostino masonry laborer on a job site in 2000. The laborer had worked on a project at Bellingham High School.
Ciulla learned about the identity theft when he received a letter from the New England office of the Laborers International Union of North America .
He said he called the Social Security Administration to complain, but got nowhere.
``It's almost always on my mind," Ciulla said of his stolen Social Security number. ``Aren't we supposed to be tightening up all of this, because of the terrorists? I thought there was going to be something a little stronger for security because of all the people talking about security for the country -- especially for a public job. This is outrageous."
Yvonne Abraham can be reached at abraham@globe.com. 