How to avoid giving your SS number to the Bank
By pagar Posted in Law — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
A friend sent this to me, I've not called the bank to verify if it's true. But the Snopes link is at the end.
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:50:20 -0500
A SORRY STATE OF AFFAIRS
A conversation between a Customer and Bank of America
Bank: This is the Bank of America, can I help you?
Customer: Yes, I want to cancel my account. I don't want to do business with you any longer.
Bank: Why?
Customer: You're giving credit to illegal immigrants and I don't think it's right. I'm taking my business elsewhere.
Bank : Well, Mr. Customer, we don't want to see you do that, but we can't stop you. I'll help you close the account. What is your account number?
Customer : (gives account number)
Bank: For security purposes and for your protection, can you please give me the last four digits of your social security n umber?
Customer : No.
Bank : Mr. Customer, I need to verify your information, but in order to help you, I'll need verification of who you are.
Customer: Why should I give you my social security number? The reason I'm closing my account is that your bank is issuing credit cards to illegal immigrants who don't have social security numbers.
You are targeting that audience and want their business. Let's say I'm an illegal immigrant and you've given me a credit card. I have a question about it and call for assistance. You wouldn't be asking me for a Social Security number, would you?
Bank: No sir, I wouldn't.
Customer: Why not?
Bank : Because you would have pressed '2' to speak in Spanish. We don't ask for that information when someone is calling in on the Spanish line.
I'm sure those illegals who have illegally obtained a Social Security number don't have to put up with the embarrassment of
not being able to open an account because they don't have a Social Security number. Just think of the advantages of not having to remember your social security number.
enforcing the Patriot Act? The point the email is making is that you do not have to provide a SS number if you are an illegal.
The IRS does NOT approve of accounts without a taxpayer ID, which is the SSN for most individual taxpayers.
Now they may be looking the other way re illegals, because there's not much taxable income to grab. But they wouldn't do it with you.
I guess the illegals are more worried about getting deported than getting audited. Heck, the IRS probably doesn't actively enforce immigration law either.
Of course if you have a Bank of America account it's not like you're getting a material amount of interest income either.
Consensus doesn't prove anything, in science or anywhere else, except in democracy, maybe. - Reid Bryson, speaking on Global Warming
I was under the impression that you could legally open an interest paying bank account in the US without a SS number if you were willing to suffer 30 some percent of your interest being withheld to the IRS.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
The SSN in this example is probably being asked for in order to authenticate that the customer is who they say they are. In reality there are other mechanisms that are more secure (..g. secret words). Banks (including Bank of America) encourage customers to never give out an SSN over the phone, and instruct customers that they won't be asked to give it out.
The issue isn't with the bank, it's with the federal government. The USA PATRIOT Act requires banks to verify identity, and it is permitted to do so by other means than SSNissuance. If you want banks to check immigration status, then call your Congressman and get a law passed or have the PATRIOT Act tightened. Don't blame banks for choosing not to enforce immigration laws unilaterally. Heck, there are cities and states receiving federal funding who choose not to enforce immigration law. Go after them.
And give credit to banks for enforcing the PATRIOT Act. Remember that finances are a weapon too and the banks are key to its success.
Consensus doesn't prove anything, in science or anywhere else, except in democracy, maybe. - Reid Bryson, speaking on Global Warming