what do you do with lost Social Security Cards ?

[JI7]

i have someone's social security card that fell on the ground outside near where i work. i was waiting to see if the person would come by and ask about it. but they haven't .

do i just throw it away or send it somewhere ?

i'm not sure if it's important.

[Ediacara]

1. I would probably go to the local Social Securtiy Office

and give it to them.

[Radio_Lady]

8. I totally agree with this. Either stop by or send by mail to a local SS office.

If you're squeamish about dealing with the government, you can send it anonymously and put a Post-It saying you found the card.

I would definitely NOT try to contact the person at all. The card itself has no value, but it may be that someone lost it and would want to recover it.

[AlCzervik]

2. you could mail it to the ss admin.

[babylonsister]

3. It's very important imo. Do you know the person?

If not, can you look them up in your local phone book? LAst option might be to send it to SS.
Or throw it out if you don't want to do anything. But I think I'd try to help someone out.

[JI7]

12. i don't know the person

i think i'm just going to hand it over to some Social Security office. i don't want to try to locate the person myself. i don't know whether it's fake or anything like that. i assume it's not. it seems like it probably just fell out of someone's pocket or bag .

i will just let Social Security people deal with it.

[krispos42]

4. Social Security Card? What's that?

Can you post a picture of it? :evilgrin:

[MADem]

5. Was it a fake, maybe? I'd send it to the SS administration, or at least call them and find out

if there's some one to whom you can mail it and they'll forward it.

[robinlynne]

6. You can also try to find the person, using the name. white pages on the internet, for

example. But make sure it is the right person before giving it back. (As with a lost pet, make sure they can identify what it is first.)

[silverweb]

7. I'd put it in a shredder.

Unless you have some way of getting in touch with the owner, I think shredding it would be the best thing to do.

That way, it can't fall into unscrupulous hands and enable identity theft.

A person can easily request another copy of their card from Social Security -- but cleaning up the mess of identity theft is a LOT harder.

[Radio_Lady]

10. I don't agree with you, Silverweb. Why not just turn it in and let others deal with this?

You are assuming that the SS people would use it for identity theft?

Our local SS office here in our town is very accessible and the people are government bureaucrats, but I can't imagine accusing them of doing something like that.

[silverweb]

14. Of course not.

You are assuming that the SS people would use it for identity theft?

Of course not.

Since I have no experience in dealing with Social Security since requesting a new card by mail many years ago, and don't know how many SS offices there are or how accessible they might be in different places, that honestly wasn't something that even occurred to me. Destroying it to keep it out of the wrong hands was the first thing that did.

Either solution is a workable one, I think.

[Synnical]

9. Shred it n/t

[syberyenta]

11. karma

I'd turn it in to your nearest Social Security Administration office. No point in playing detective.
The card can be replaced, the peace of mind-- not so much.

www.ssa.gov

[newyawker99]

19. Hi syberyenta!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[lligrd]

13. Not Sure It Would Work In Every City But When I Lost My

credit card someone turned it into the police department and they returned it to me at home. I live in a fairly small city (about 30,000) but I was still pleasantly surprised. And I hadn't even known I had lost it yet.

[Gabi Hayes]

15. I'll take it....I need a new

passport

[Omphaloskepsis]

16. Burn it.. It is easy to get a new one...

While handing it off to someone else at the SS office might sound good. They could pocket it. I doubt that would happen, but it could. The only way to make sure nothing bad could happen with it is to destroy it.

[SoCalDem]

17. Take it to the SS office n/t

[Nicole]

18. Mail it to the SSA, that is what they request you to do.

On the back of my SS card it reads:

If you find a card that isn't your's, please return it to:
Social Security Adminstration

The mailing address is below that.

[madokie]

20. I remember once finding one and was advised to take it to the post office

that they would know what to do with it and so I did. I guess they did because I never heard another thing about it.