SSN Search
What is this Article About?
This article explains what SSN Search means, what it can and can not be used for, what an SSN number is, when and how you get one, and more.
Contents
- What is an SSN?
- What does SSN Search Mean?
- Can you conduct an SSN Search for free?
- Is SSN Search the same as SSN Verification?
- What information will be found on an SSN Search?
- What’s a People Finders Website?
- Start Here
1. What is an SSN?
An SSN stands for Social Security number and is a distinctive number allocated to United States citizens (and others, for example, green card holders) to record details of their income. In addition, an SSN is used for:
- Opening bank accounts.
- Opening children’s bank accounts.
- Purchasing a home or a motor vehicle
- Obtaining state/government benefits
- Obtaining Insurance
As well as many other uses.
When is an SSN issued?
It used to be that an SSN would be issued when a person is in their early teens, (between the ages of 14 and 16). However, since the late 1980s parents can request the issuance of an SSN at birth in order to apply for government benefits, medical insurance, passports, and even to open a savings account in the name of their child.
2. What does SSN Search mean?
SSN Search is a way of finding people, or identifying people or verifying someone’s identity that makes use of their social security number, or SSN.
Why is an SSN important to a “search”?
A person’s SSN is linked to all of their public records. These records include employment information, medicare, criminal records, arrest records, bank loans, real estate and rental addresses. The social security number is one of the key bits of data to “tie” other bits of data together.
In the example of an SSN Search, this data will be used to link all of the information about a person together to run, for example, a background check, or what’s know an an “SSN Trace”.
Examples of where an SSN Search maybe used:
- An employment background check
- A criminal background check
- A death records search or to verify the particulars of a deceased person
- A marriage or divorce check
- A reverse phone search
- A Credit Check
Essentially, any type of online search will ideally lookup a person by their social security number as this means much more data can be provided.
Who might use an SSN to conduct a search?
There are many instances when an organization might search for a person by SSN.
Three examples of SSN search include:
- Employers (will use SSN Search by name to verify a person’s name is correct and their associated information)
- Government agencies will use SSN as a primary identifier tag for taxes and legal records
- Legal professionals – such as lawyers and private investigators – might use an SSN search to locate someone or look for related records
3. Can you conduct a free SSN Search?
To a certain extent, you can conduct a free SSN Search. Employers, for example, can use ss.gov to verify social security numbers and there are other ways to confirm that a social security number was issued by the Social Security Administration. However, as an SSN is a person’s very important and confidential personal data, it’s not possible for a member of the public to conduct a reverse SSN Search just based on having their name and location.
If you do have someone’s full social security number, with their permission, you might be able to provide a reverse social security number search to discover (a huge amount) of information about a person. For this reason, an SSN should be kept as secure as a bank pin number. This is especially important as cases of identity theft have proliferated in recent years as this CNN article discusses.
4. Is SSN Search the same as SSN Verification?
No. SSN Search is a search that uses an SSN number (or even just the first 3 digits of the number) to conduct a complex public records search. SSN verification is a process where you check that an SSN and a person’s name match. There is an example here of a people finders website which shows how you can conduct an SSN verification. However, as the website states, this service is for informational purposes only and should not be misused.
5. What information will be found on an SSN Search?
An SSN Search may provide the following information:
- Name
- Addresses lived at
- Date of Birth
- Relatives
- Criminal Convictions
- Arrest Records
- Marriage Records
- Divorce Records
- Property Records
- Liens
- Bankruptcies
and more.
This is in addition, of course to using other search engines like Google to conduct people searches. If the purpose of your search is to find a person, using Google to do a “reverse lookup” is a good way to start.
If your search of Google or social media profiles does not bring you enough information, you can then use a people finders website (like Quick People Trace) to run a much more extensive search, including the use of SSN for an area based search.
6. What’s a People Finders website?
People Finders websites, like Quick People Trace is a website with connections to vast qualities of public records, and are used for conducting background checks and SSN Searches, for example. Services include:
- SSN Lookup
- SSN Search
- Reverse SSN lookup
- Criminal Background Checks
- Reverse People Search
- Reverse Phone Search
However it is worth pointing out that whilst our search tools are very powerful, they can’t be used to look someone up by their social security number for employment, credit or tenant screening purposes. Also, these SSN searches only use the location/area number in the SSN as a starting point for the search; you can get the same results using just a name and last known city/state.