Your Social Security number is essential for finding employment, filing taxes and applying for credit. It can also be a nightmare to recover if thieves get a hold of your SSN and use it to apply for jobs, open accounts in your name and steal your tax refund.
Blocking electronic access to your SSN may feel extreme — it’s certainly inconvenient. But if you’ve been a victim of identity theft or your personal identifiable information was compromised in a recent data breach, like the hacks of Change Healthcare or National Public Data, where hundreds of millions of people were impacted, locking your SSN may protect you from future harm.
Blocking access or “locking” your SSN will make it extremely difficult for an identity thief to use your SSN for malicious actions. This, coupled with a credit freeze, can help stop identity thieves in their tracks.
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