A company lost my Social Security number
You cannot change your SSN, practically speaking — but you can make it nearly useless to a thief in about half an hour.
The realistic goal
Not getting the number back — it is copied forever now. The goal is making it worthless: an SSN opens doors mostly through new credit and tax filings, and both doors lock.
The half-hour
- Freeze your credit at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion (about ten minutes each, free, reversible). This kills most SSN abuse outright.
- Get an IRS IP PIN at irs.gov/ippin so nobody can file taxes as you.
- Create your own account at ssa.gov (my Social Security) so a criminal cannot create it first and reroute benefits.
Afterward
Take any free monitoring the company offers; glance at annualcreditreport.com a few times a year; and stay suspicious of callers who "confirm" personal details — they are often working from the same leak. The number being out there stops being an emergency once the doors are locked.
Not sure how exposed you are? Our free check shows which leaks your email is in — about one second, and you keep the answer. And if you are in the middle of something right now, a person answers at contact@protectindiana.org.