I am my brother’s keeper, apparently
My brother and I were born on the same day (July 21), three years apart. (No, we’re not twins. You wouldn’t believe how many people ask us that, as if we’re going to whip out a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records and point to our names under the entry for Longest Twin Labor or something.) Our Social Security numbers are very, very similar - only the last two digits are different, and are actually the reverse of one another’s. Let’s just say my soc is 999-999-9965 and his is 999-999-9956. That’s how close they are.
This has led to much fun when it comes to credit reports and identity confirmation for security reasons. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked which of a set of four addresses is one I’ve actually lived at, and I have to say, “Well, none, but that one is where my brother lived at university.”
It’s a pretty good lesson in how wrong things can go when systems are expected to trump individual autonomy and competence. I may have my US passport with me, utility bills in my name, a wallet full of debit and credit cards in my name, and documents which confirm my social security number, but all that means nothing when - as the Little Britain boys put it - computer says no.
All this because I lost my Social Security card years ago, and never needed to replace it until now. I need to do so now for my new ING Direct account; because of the muddling of my brother’s information with mine, they won’t confirm my identity until I send them a copy of my card. At least they were very nice about it, which is a lot more than I am used to from banks…
Filed under: Life
My father’s date of birth was initially recorded incorrectly in the register of births in the town where he was born. This meant for many years that different documents showed his date of birth as different dates. He eventually got the register of births and other government documents fixed after digging up other documents to confirm when he was born. (Somewhat amazingly, he managed to find the hospital bill in a cupboard of old documents belonging to his mother) . After this, the problem went away. However, before this it caused him no end of grief. Getting your name changed in an organisation’s records is one thing. Getting your date of birth changed is another order of difficulty entirely.