What would actually happen if someone got a hold of your social security number

Ive heard that its bad, but what actually happens? What can someone do with the SSN of another person?
      Answer1:The SSN by itself is bad, but not nearly as bad as if its in conjunction with other identifiable information like name, address, telephone number, mothers maiden name, etc. The problem is that the SSN is the hardest one to obtain, and the other stuff is easy. If they get all this information together they have enough information to apply for credit cards in your name, get information about you from your bank (like account numbers), pull your credit report and see who you have loans through, etc. Once your identity has been stolen, thieves will commonly sell your information to other people, so the fraud can go on for years. Its not any fun. My husbands info got stolen a few years ago and we had a couple of years where we never knew if our money would actually be in our accounts or if it had been compromised and stolen.
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