Social Security Administration is changing how they issue numbers, effective June 2011.
It’s always been a useful investigative technique to use the first three numbers of a suspect’s social security number to determine where he/she was from, as the first three numbers of the SSN correlate to the zip code on the application.
However, in order to increase efforts to protect the integrity of the social security numbers, and extend the use of 9-digit numbers, the numbers will be assigned to states randomly beginning in June 2011. It is their hope it will help reduce identity theft, by making it harder to reconstruct the number.
Current SSNs will not be re-assigned new numbers. On June 25, 2011, what is called the “High Group List” will be frozen in time when the random number system is implemented. The High Group List will still be available for verification.
One thing that will stay the same is that there will be no group numbers of “000” or “00” or “0000" so that will still be a fraud indicator. However, overall, it looks like the next generations of law enforcement will have to use other ways to learn about a person’s past.
More details are on the Social Security website.
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