Originally Posted by NemesisEnforcer

The collection agency does that for us. We also have access to a criss-cross service that provides the SS# for every person that an individual has ever lived with. Getting a SS# is not difficult you can get your neighbor's SS# right now from sites such as GovSSNRecord or Intelius.

Once you have a person's name and address you can get their social security number. That's the purpose of making sure that the AVS information is correct, i.e. YYY. Also, you don't always need a social security number to put something on someone's credit report. For example, if you go to small claims court, you never put the defendant's SS# on the documents but the credit bureaus pick it up if the defendant loses the case. If the name and address matches, they add it to that credit report or start a credit history for that name and address.

The credit bureaus are not perfect and they do make errors. I know a guy that is a junior and because he lived with his father, his fathers unpaid medical bills appear on his credit report. It's a nightmare for him because the hospital has put a lien on his house rather than his father's house.