If you are living in United States, you know how important your Social Security Number (SSN) is. It is but understood that the SSN is the most important number for all purposes of identification in the United States. It is but obvious that one should not give out his number unless it is absolutely necessary. But the million dollar question is the definition of such necessary situations.

By accessing our SSN, an intruder can illegally get his hands on our personal information. With the help of this information, he would further be able to use our credits in our name which would leave us with a mess leading to financial troubles. More so, in the future we might not be permitted to take any loans.

The 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report projects that there were more than eleven million people in the nations who were subjected to an identity fraud. This led to a total cost of $54 billion. However, the better part was that these people did not have to pay up for that. On an average, $373 had to be paid out for those who had to. But then the average time spent on resolving this issue by each victim was about 21 hours.

Thus, in order to save yourself from such fraudulent practices, here are a few precautions which you can follow:

• It is important to keep the social security card from vulnerable place. This definitely means that you should not keep it in your wallet.
• It is not wrong to consider this number as highly confidential. You can be firm on denying writing your social security number on a cheque.
• Incase you get any requests via your email for your SSN; it is best not to respond. This should be followed even for phone calls.
• If some insurance quote from an online company asks for the same, ensure that the server is secure and the company is known and a reputable one.
• It is highly advised to get your free credit reports each year. This is to make sure that there have been no unusual credit lines.

Apart from the above, there are certain cases where in it would be important for you to give out your Social Security Number. To know more, stay tuned for our next update on the same.