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Immigrant gets tainted Social - from feds
Jun. 12, 2007 12:00 AM
Alba Morillo, an immigrant from Paraguay, recently attempted to open a bank account in Phoenix using a tainted Social Security number.
A bank official told her that a person in New Jersey was using the number she claimed as her own. Morillo swore that she had no knowledge of the fraud. In fact, she immediately contacted authorities and gave them all the information that was needed to nab the people responsible for handing out the compromised numbers.
"But they told me that they can do nothing," Morillo said.
Why? I asked.
"Because it was the government who gave me the number," Morillo said. "I got it from the Social Security office. The government is the one handing out stolen numbers."
She's not making this up.
James Pavletich of the local Social Security office told me, "Yes, we have encountered this before."
Alba Morillo did everything that we ask of an immigrant. She followed all the rules. She filled out all the forms. She waited for more than six years. Finally, she was granted permanent residency status and became eligible to receive a Social Security number. And she got one.
"I was so happy," she said. "This means I can get a bank account. A good job. Then, I get this bad number. And when I ask the people at Social Security, 'Can you fix this?' they tell me, 'We don't do that. You have to do that yourself.' "
Incredibly, she's not making that up, either.
Social Security's Pavletich said, "Because the misuse of the number exists in the private sector, that is where she needs to go to repair it. We know that we have issued her a valid number, and that is the one she needs to use for work and employment purposes. If she can show us that she has done everything to try to correct the error in the private sector but is still suffering a loss because of the misuse of the number, then we can issue her a new number."
But that's only after Murillo tries - to the government's satisfaction - to fix the mess that the government put her in. She's been contacting credit bureaus and others to try to do so.
"This seems crazy to me," she said. "They gave it to me and now I must correct it?"
Welcome to the United States.
Morillo's parents immigrated here in the 1970s. She stayed behind to live with her grandparents. She has siblings who were born here and live here. She was married and divorced in Paraguay and brought her two young daughters with her to the U.S.
"It has been six years since I arrived," she said. "I have made sure to do everything correctly. Now, I feel like people are treating me like a criminal because of this number - like I did something wrong."
According to Pavletich, "We can give her verification and documentation saying that it is her Social Security number, and she can take it to the bank. But that is as far as our authority goes. We can't make the bank correct anything. It is up to the bank."
As for how a tainted number would be given out in the first place, he added, "It could have been a number pulled out of the air, or someone bought a falsified card with a number that hasn't been issued yet. We just don't know."
Meantime, Alba Morillo (and who knows how many like her) had her new "American" identity stolen even before she'd assumed it.
"This was to be my new life," she said. "This was what I worked so hard for all those years. To change things for me and my children."
Instead, thanks to the government, she went from being a non-citizen to being a non-entity.
Jun. 12, 2007 12:00 AM
Alba Morillo, an immigrant from Paraguay, recently attempted to open a bank account in Phoenix using a tainted Social Security number.
A bank official told her that a person in New Jersey was using the number she claimed as her own. Morillo swore that she had no knowledge of the fraud. In fact, she immediately contacted authorities and gave them all the information that was needed to nab the people responsible for handing out the compromised numbers.
"But they told me that they can do nothing," Morillo said.
Why? I asked.
"Because it was the government who gave me the number," Morillo said. "I got it from the Social Security office. The government is the one handing out stolen numbers."
She's not making this up.
James Pavletich of the local Social Security office told me, "Yes, we have encountered this before."
Alba Morillo did everything that we ask of an immigrant. She followed all the rules. She filled out all the forms. She waited for more than six years. Finally, she was granted permanent residency status and became eligible to receive a Social Security number. And she got one.
"I was so happy," she said. "This means I can get a bank account. A good job. Then, I get this bad number. And when I ask the people at Social Security, 'Can you fix this?' they tell me, 'We don't do that. You have to do that yourself.' "
Incredibly, she's not making that up, either.
Social Security's Pavletich said, "Because the misuse of the number exists in the private sector, that is where she needs to go to repair it. We know that we have issued her a valid number, and that is the one she needs to use for work and employment purposes. If she can show us that she has done everything to try to correct the error in the private sector but is still suffering a loss because of the misuse of the number, then we can issue her a new number."
But that's only after Murillo tries - to the government's satisfaction - to fix the mess that the government put her in. She's been contacting credit bureaus and others to try to do so.
"This seems crazy to me," she said. "They gave it to me and now I must correct it?"
Welcome to the United States.
Morillo's parents immigrated here in the 1970s. She stayed behind to live with her grandparents. She has siblings who were born here and live here. She was married and divorced in Paraguay and brought her two young daughters with her to the U.S.
"It has been six years since I arrived," she said. "I have made sure to do everything correctly. Now, I feel like people are treating me like a criminal because of this number - like I did something wrong."
According to Pavletich, "We can give her verification and documentation saying that it is her Social Security number, and she can take it to the bank. But that is as far as our authority goes. We can't make the bank correct anything. It is up to the bank."
As for how a tainted number would be given out in the first place, he added, "It could have been a number pulled out of the air, or someone bought a falsified card with a number that hasn't been issued yet. We just don't know."
Meantime, Alba Morillo (and who knows how many like her) had her new "American" identity stolen even before she'd assumed it.
"This was to be my new life," she said. "This was what I worked so hard for all those years. To change things for me and my children."
Instead, thanks to the government, she went from being a non-citizen to being a non-entity.
