Upon Further Investigation...

It is looking like all 3 of the younger kids have had their Social Security Numbers stolen.

In all 3 cases, when i try to get credit reports, i am told that the information of date of birth and such do not match up with the records the credit bureaus have.

As i said, this is going to be a test of whether or not that identity theft insurance we've been paying for will work.  Supposedly, if it does turn out their numbers are being used by other people, all we have to do is file the police report, and the company does the actual hundreds of hours of legwork involved in getting the mess untangled and their credit cleared up.

Now, too, if these people are using my kids' numbers for jobs and such, we will have to notify the SSA and make sure there aren't earnings credited to them that don't belong, and that Bigger Girl's earnings are credited to her properly.  Also, we will have to watch for someone else's medical information coming up under their numbers.  That can be a mess to clean, because medical records are confidential.

Still, this company claims to work on all of that.  We will see.

There has to be a better way than the Social Security Number to identify people, and be the one main source of figuring out who someone is.  It was never meant to do this.  We need a better, more secure system.

Meanwhile, tell all the parents you know, and if you are parents, consider yourself warned.  People apparently love to steal the SSN of kids, because they are working with a clean slate.  Often, apparently, they do this to babies and don't get found out until the kids are 18 and applying for student loans.  By then, it's a horrible, tangled mess.

Check every year.  Everyone is entitled by law to one free credit report every year from each of the big 3 companies.  You don't have to sign up for anything, the websites that promise a free report when you sign up for a trial of this or that are ripoffs.  Instead, get the absolutely free ones from annualcreditreport.com.

Do it 3 times a year, one of the 3 reports at a time.  That way you spot anything very early, when it's easy to untangle.

Check for your own credit, too, the same way, 3 times a year.

Had i realized, i would have done it long before now, and we wouldn't be wondering if we could even get our kid into school.


Today is

Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day (Buy your cheese that will be sacrificed on Cheese Sacrifice Day, and no, I never have found out why there is a Cheese Sacrifice Day anyway or to whom you are supposed to sacrifice it.)*

Feast of St. Martha, Virgin, Dragon Charmer, Sister of Lazarus (Patron of butlers, cooks, dieticians, domestic servants, homemakers, hotel keepers, housemaids, housewives, inkeepers, laundry workers, maids, manservants, servants, servers, single laywomen, travellers; Villajoyosa, Spain, which village she saved on her feast day by sending a flash flood to wash away the Moorish invaders in 1538)

Festival of Domhnach Chrom Dubh -- Ireland (Black Crom's Sunday, associated with the god Lugh and connected to the festival of Lammas; also connected to John Barleycorn, the personification of the grain, who is killed by being harvested at this time; many honor St. Patrick's Fast by making a pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick, where he fasted until he overcame the pagan deity Crom Cruach [Crom of the Reek])

Fiesta de Santa Maria Ribarteme (a/k/a Festival of Near Death Experiences) -- As Neves, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain (festival of Mary in which those who have come back from near death are carried to the shrine in open coffins, or walk there clad in shrouds)

Heyannir month commences -- Icelandic Calendar (Harvest Month, literally translates "Hay Working")

International Bog Day

International Tiger Day

Mi'kmaq Pilgrimage to St. Ann Mission -- Mi'kmaq First Nations of Canada and Maine

NASA Day -- marking the day President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, creating NASA

National Anthem Day -- Romania

National Lasagna Day

National Thai Language Day -- Thailand (Wan Phasa Thai Haeng Chat)

National Tree Day -- Australia

Photograph Your Children When They're Not Looking Day -- get a good, candid shot to enjoy

Procession of the Penitents -- Veurne, Belgium (passion play dating back to the 15th century)

Rain Day Festival -- Waynesburg, Pennsylvania (yes, it has rained at 113 out of the 137 observances of this festival on this date)

Ranggeln -- Mt. Hundstein, Germany (traditional form of wresting, called ranggeln, in honor of St. Jacob's Day [which most celebrate on July 25]; this particular festival harks back to the pre-Christian Lughnasadh celebrations, which went through Aug. 1 and contained athletic events)

Runic Half-Month Thorn begins (defense)

St. Lazarus' Day -- date given in the Martyrologium Romanum; celebrated on Lazarus Saturday by most Eastern Churches and on Dec. 17 in most Western Churches

St. Olaf's (Olav) Day (Norway's Viking king; pPtron of carvers, difficult marriages, kings; Norway)related observances
     Olavsoka -- Faroe Islands (opening of Logting, or Parliament; a National Day, on the Feast Day of St. Olav)
     Oslok Eve -- Norway (celebrating the valiant death of their hero on this evening at the battle at Stiklestadt in 1030)
     sometimes associated with Thor's Day among the Norse and Thunor of the Anglo-Saxons

Territory Day -- Wallis and Futuna

*"A cheese may disappoint. It may be dull, it may be naive, it may be oversophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk's leap toward immortality." Clifton Fadiman


Anniversaries Today

Mary, Queen of Scots, marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, 1565
Charles, Prince of Wales, marries Lady Diana Spencer, 1981


Birthdays Today

Wanya Morris, 1973
Julian McMahon, 1968
Martina McBride, 1966
Marilyn Quayle, 1949
Peter Jennings, 1938
Elizabeth Dole, 1936
Paul Taylor, 1930
Melvin Belli, 1907
Clara Bow, 1905
Dag Hammarskjold, 1905
Stanley Kunitz, 1905
Benito Mussolini, 1883
Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805


Today in History

King Olaf II fights and dies trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes, 1030
James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling, 1567
English naval forces under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France, 1588
John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there, 1793
Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 1836
In Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put down by police, 1848
The First Hague Convention is signed, 1899
Sir Robert Baden Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England; this is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement, 1907
The International Atomic Energy Agency is established, 1957
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel, 1987
The film Cry Freedom is seized by South African authorities, 1988
Astronomers announce the discovery of Eris, the largest dwarf planet in the solar system, 2005