Someone’s earning money on my ID…what do I do?

September 30, 2010 – 10:02 am

A Burlington, N.C. man faces multiple charges after sheriff’s investigators say he stole the identity of a Mebane woman.

Abel Mendoza Hernandez, 38, was charged with identity theft, obtaining property by false pretense and possessing fraudulent identification. The charges stem from an investigation after the Mebane woman reported that her employer informed her of a claim filed with the Employment Security Commission, utilizing her Social Security number. Hernandez had apparently been using her number to earn his wages.

Hernandez is being held in the Alamance County Jail on a $20,000 bond.

You may be asking how you can tell if someone might be using your Social Security number to earn a living. You can contact the Employment Commission in your state to obtain a statement of wages and earnings, which will show by your Social what jobs you have held and where those jobs were located.

The simplest way to check for this is to carefully review your Social Security statement, which you should receive once a year. The statement will contain a personal record of the earnings on which you have paid Social Security taxes during your working years, and a summary of the benefits you and your family may receive as a result of those earnings.

But although it seems logical to review your Social Security statement, it is not a surefire way to know if someone is using your number. Your statement may include earnings if someone is using your SSN, but then again, it might now. It’s best to contact your Employment Commission.

If you find that someone is using your Social Security number, you should file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission either online at www.consumer.gov/idtheft, or by telephone at 1-877-IDTHEFT.

If you suspect that someone is using your number for work purposes, you should contact the Social Security Administration. You can do so online at http://www.ssa.gov/ or call toll-free at 1-800-772-1213. You can call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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