| Comment Number: | 531096-00223 |
| Received: | 9/1/2007 2:21:09 PM |
| Organization: | Sun State Investigative Services, Inc. |
| Commenter: | Warren Sonne |
| State: | FL |
| Agency: | Federal Trade Commission |
| Rule: | Private Sector Use of SSNs |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Illegal immigration, identity theft, insurance fraud, are all obvious reasons for the creation of strong national identify number, not the locking away of SSN information from those who use it for the public good. Recently, while conducting and investigation for a hospital client that was being sued for improper hiring and retention of an employee who alleged sexually abused an illegal alien patient who's $67,000, medical bill had already been waived by the hospital, I conducted a background report on the SSN that he provided. This number returned over thirty separate names of mostly Hispanic individuals throughout the country who were using it. Fraud, plain and simple. These illegal aliens were all using the same SSN! In this particular civil suit, the illegal alien had been driving a vehicle without a license and without insurance. A car owned and driven by a citizen struck his car. The illegal collected $29,000 from the real citizen who settled out of court. The illegal alien was admitted to the hospital in Florida with broken pelvis and leg bones. His hospitization and medical care was provided for free! He is now suing the hospital, alleging that their employee fondled him while he was there. How stupid can we be? Now, you are considering a law that would prevent Private Investigators from accessing SSN information? I guess we can be pretty stupid if we (meaning YOU) try hard enough. I would suggest that the efforts of Congress would be better spent creating laws that would address real problems, rather than attempting to lock away important information which has been public and which is used everyday by private investigators representing both plaintiff's and defendants, both of whom will be damaged if this type of ill-conceived legislation is passed. If as lawmakers you feel the need to do something to protect the privacy of individuals, you should allocate additional funds to law enforcement to investigate and prosecute cases of identity theft. At the present time, the overwhelming majority of ID Theft cases are investigated by Private Investigators. As the president of two Private Investigation Firms, Pinnacle Protective Services (NY & NJ), and Sun State Investigative Services in Florida, the founder of the United States Association of Professional Investigators (USAPI), a retired NYPD Detective, and the author of Criminal Investigations for the Professional Investigator (Taylor Francis/CRC Press Jan 2006), and I am the unique position to comment upon the need for Private Investigators to have continued access to SSN information, or better yet to a National Identification Card database. To exclude PI's from this much needed information will do irreparable harm to those who you claim you are trying to protect. Warren J. Sonne, CPP, CLI Sun State Investigative Services, Inc. 8812 Bally Bunion Road Port St. Lucie, FL 34986 (772) 466-1717 Fax (772) 673-8585 Website: www.THEFLPI.com Member: FALI, FAPI, ALDONYS, NJLPIA, SPI, ACFE, NALI, NCISS, ASIS, CII, INTELNET, USAPI, WAD, IIN, FOP, RDNY, Ret. NYPD. Author: "Criminal Investigations for the Professional Investigator" CRC Press, Jan 2006.