It started when I went to the Admissions office to get a new student I.D. When I got to the line for pictures I was told that I had to go to window one to pay the fee for a new I.D., so I said fine. I got back into line and waited for what seemed like forever because it was the first day of school. When I finally got to the front of the line, 1 told the lady that I needed a new I.D.
She asked me for my photo I.D. as proof of who I was, but because I lost my wallet two weeks before, I didn’t have any identification. She pulled out a piece of paper and told me to write my name, social security number, and birth date on it, and I did. When she typed in my social security number there was someone else’s name and face with it.
It surprised me. I thought that maybe she typed in the wrong number. She must have thought she did too because she asked me for my social security number again. I looked at the paper and it was the same one I remember smce I was little. When I asked her what was going on, she said she had no idea. I insisted that that was my social security number and that it must have been a mistake on her part. She tried typing in my name and saw that the social security number was mine. She told me to wait and she went somewhere for about five minutes. When she came back, she told me that she couldn’t help me unless I brought in a picture I.D. because she needed a “name to match the face.”
She had two people with the same social security number. At least now I understood why she was so confused. The next day I came with a copy of my California I.D. I got my new student I.D, but I was angry. Unless the social security office made a mistake, which is unlikely, someone is running around using my social security number.
I’ve seen on television a million times about other people stealing an I.D to become that person, but I never thought that it could happen to me. Now that it has, I just stare at the name on the I.D. feeling totally helpless. The person who had my identification could do about anything with it. They could get a credit card or even kill and it would be me who is responsible because it is my social security number.
When you hear on television about all these things and say it can never happen to you, just remember anything can happen at any place. Even in the place you feel the safest, school.
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