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PP Debit card needs last four digits of ss# on a stealth account
 

The gift card that I used to set up the PP account (stealth info) was brought down to a zero balance.
I do have a bank account attached to the PP account and wanted to get the PP debit card. (even though it is stealth the address is a real one that I can receive mail at in my registered name)
When I applied for the debit card it asked for info on the original GC including the security code. It kept rejecting it...assumed it was because there were no funds left in it.
So, I got another card, added it and removed the old card...okay good to go.

Went to apply for the debit card and it wants the last 4 digits of my stealth's SS#.

Question is...what do I put down? They obviously don't have a SS# on file because the person on the account does not really exist. Seems to me that I had heard years ago when in college and they still used to use SS#'s as student ID #'s that the digits in a SS# do stand for something.

I would think that the only thing that it could stand for that they would have on file (i.e. I already provided it) would be the date of birth that is listed as 1979.

So can anybody help and clear this up?

I *DO* know that you can tell the date range and state the SSN was issued in. But I don't know which numbers indicate that. So maybe that is why they wanted it.

Also, there is a myth circulating that you NEED an SSN to run a credit report. You don't. All you need is the name and address. The SSN is then useful for verifying you have the right person (like in a JR/SR situation). Also, you MAY need the SSN if the credit bureau does not have a record of that name at the address provided.

I don't know if PP uses any of the above, but it sounds like they want to verify your identity.

If the date of birth indicates a younger person, they might just assume that you are not in the credit system yet.

Maybe one of the more experienced members can offer further guidance here. But either PP is getting more sophisticated or something red flagged the account. I've never had them ask for this.

Have you received Paypal debit cards for those accounts though?

I think the only thing that might have red-flagged it was because I changed the registered CC on file, but all of the info was the same.

I did a little checking and it appears that the only numbers that truly mean anything are the first 3 which have to do with where the application was submitted from.

It appears that the last four are simply generated in sequence. Without the first 5 digits can they actually determine the validity of the number that you provide to them?

No. I only have the debit cardf on my original account. Requesting the debit card may have done it. I usually just withdaw to my bank accounts.

I have a Paypal debit card with my real account and I don't recall if it asked for it back then or not.
I can withdraw to a bank account with this Paypal account, just don't like the fact that it takes 3-5 days and the debit card could be right away

Okay, I've been Googling since I first posted and came up with this which may be useful to the group

First Three Digits: The first three digits of your number indicate where, why, or how it was issued. They may represent the U.S. state in which the applicant applied for and was awarded his or her number. In North Carolina, the numbers range between 237 and 246; in Oregon, they range between 540 and 544. Additional numbers were assigned for other areas. These include those beginning with 574SE and 586SE, which were assigned to Asian refugees applying for Social Security numbers between April 1975 and November 1979. The number 586 is used for American Samoa, Guam, and the Philippine Islands. The range of 900-999 is not valid but has been used for some special state purposes in the past.

The number range 700-728 was reserved for use by the Railroad Retirement Board, and these were used through 1963 for the assignment of new numbers, and then discontinued. This is an important designation. If you know your ancestor had a number beginning with any number between 700 and 728, he or she did work for the railroad at some extended point in time. If he or she drew Social Security retirement benefits, and the number was in this range, he or she also would have drawn Railroad Retirement benefits as well, assuming he or she applied for benefits.

You can find a complete list of Social Security number ranges in the book, The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy.

Second Two Digits: The second cluster of numbers, two digits in length, are a code to help identify fraudulent numbers. These are much like check-sums or check-digits used on many items today. An arithmetic formula is applied to add, subtract, multiple, and/or divide the first group of numbers and one of the digits from the resulting answer is used to verify that the number was keyed correctly or was accurate. (Incorrect check digits in some of these on grocery store products are the most common cause for cash register errors and cashiers to have to do price checks, for example.)

Last Four Digits: The last group of numbers is four digits in length. These numbers are assigned randomly. Contrary to some myths, there is no connection between one's birth date or other data and the last four digits of one's Social Security Number.

If you try to enter something "false" about 3 times you will get the 'ole fax a copy of your ssn. If you have the debit card before they require the ssn then once the card is expired or lost/stolen then you will have to give them the ssn. I do have stealth accounts with the debit card.

While it is true that there is no date of birth embedded in a social security number, you CAN tell the approximate year it was issued.

For younger people, that would be their birth year. For us older guys, we used to apply for an SSN around the time we got our first job. Congress changed the law to enable the IRS to stop two divorced parents from claiming the same child on their tax returns, or fraudsters from making up non-existant children to get tax breaks.

While they cannot use this for positive verification, they can (with the entire SSN) tell if you are likely giving false information. For example, if you were born in June 1990, you would be 20 years old. If you give them a social security number that was issued in 1964, it would be a good indicator that you either entered the number incorrectly by accident or are giving them false information.

You now need a valid SSN for the paypal debit card. The alogarithm to 'crack' the code is not easy. The last 4 numbers are serial numbers, that much I know. Random 4 numbers fail the bots' program.
Fiddling around puts the account under scrutiny. :spy:

Social security numbers (SSNs) are not random numbers. They are assigned regionally and in batches.

The nine-digit SSN, which has been issued in more than 400 million different sequences, is divided into three parts:

•Area numbers - The first three numbers originally represented the state in which a person first applied for a social security card. Numbers started in the northeast and moved westward. This meant that people on the east coast had the lowest numbers and those on the west coast had the highest. Since 1972, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has assigned numbers and issued cards based on the ZIP code in the mailing address provided on the original application form. Since the applicant's mailing address doesn't have to be the same as his residence, his area number doesn't necessarily represent the state in which he resides. For many of us who received our SSNs as infants, the area number indicates the state we were born in. You can find out which area numbers go with each state here.

•Group numbers - These two middle digits, which range from 01 through 99, are simply used to break all the SSNs with the same area number into smaller blocks to make administration easier. (The SSA says that, for administrative reasons, group numbers issued first consist of the odd numbers from 01 through 09, and then even numbers from 10 through 98, within each area number assigned to a state. After all the numbers in group 98 of a specific area have been issued, the even groups 02 through 08 are used, followed by odd groups 11 through 99.)

•Serial numbers - Within each group designation, serial numbers -- the last four digits in an SSN -- run consecutively from 0001 through 9999.

I guess it's just less of a hassle to set up bank accounts and have funds from the stealth Paypal accounts sent to those accounts and wait the extra day or two as opposed to jumping through even more hoops to get the Paypal debit card and withdraw the funds right away.
I'm only using three Paypal acounts right now...one that is 100% real, one with stealth info except for an address that I have access to and the third with 100% stealth info with no bank account attached