Fake Social Security #

[Jimmy NA]

I have a group of prospective tenants for one of my units. They seem to be nice young people, 2 guys, 2 girls. I had the two oldest people, the young guys, fill out the application. They are working at a local factory but their Socials are invalid. Frankly, I don't care. I am going to call their current landlord. My gut feeling is they will not be a problem. They dress well, look me in the eye, appear to have jobs, one car in decent shape. They are probably not here legally but it seems that are trying hard to make it. Any thoughts, what am I missing here?

[Joshua Dorkin]

A few things . . .

1 - Be careful how you judge potential tenants. If you're judging people by anything other than their application, you could be breaking the law and could get yourself in a LOT of trouble.

2 - If someone puts a fake SS# on their application, they are starting things off by lying. Probably not the right way to get it going, no?

[Michael Shadow]

Be sure it was a fake social. I've had applications where I miss-read the number so I called them to confirm their SS and found out that that 4 was really a 9.

I second what Josh says, If they are putting fake numbers on the app I wouldn't even consider them, they are trying to hid something and they'll be nothing but trouble.

[Jimmy NA]

Well, they are trying to hid something but it may not be as malicous as it appears. They are probably here illegally; so what. Means nothing to me. They are working and have a good reference.....

[Michael Shadow]

Why'd you ask in the first place? It sounds like you've already made up your mind...

[Tom C]

CT,

Theres nothing worse then an illegal.. You might as well rent to a crack dealer or rapist.

[Richard F.]

What is your basis for the statement that their SS#'s are invalid?

[Account Closed]

They might be illegal, They might not.

US citizens who are wanted by the law have been known to pretend to be illegal so nobody runs a criminal check on them.

The truth is that unless you have the SS# and run the credit report and the criminal background, you have absolutely no idea whom you are renting to.

Without a valid SS#, you might not even have their real names.

Also, be careful about stacking. With undocumented, occassionally the best looking will rent a place and then 25 people move in and share the rent.

[Account Closed]

Seriously, if they are lying right off the bat and you are still willing deal with them? Talk about a LARGE can of worms you probably don't want anything to do with!

[Jimmy NA]

Originally posted by "TC":
CT,

Theres nothing worse then an illegal.. You might as well rent to a crack dealer or rapist.

Sorry TC,

That is an ignorant statement. Some of my best friends have over stayed their travel visas here from various Eastern Europen countries and a few from South America. They are good, caring, hardworking people. I feel sorry for you because you have never met these people. They would break their back for me or loan me their last dime if I needed it. I actually married one of these people you so hate. TC, don't respond to my posts anymore.

[Jimmy NA]

Originally posted by "Beachbum":
What is your basis for the statement that their SS#'s are invalid?

Ran it through e-renter.com and came up invalid. I asked the tenants again if I had the right SS# to confirm I didn't make a mistake. From e-renters.com site the numbers are invalid.

[Jimmy NA]

Originally posted by "dafly":
Why'd you ask in the first place? It sounds like you've already made up your mind...

McFly,

This is a discussion board. Here is the definition:

Dis-cus-sion: an act or instance of discussing; consideration or examination by argument, comment, etc., esp. to explore solutions; informal debate.

[Joshua Dorkin]

Lets all cool off here. If we can't play like adults, I'm not going to treat any of you like adults. Lets keep the hate speech off the site, TC. Try to keep your venom to yourself.

[Richard F.]

OK, I'm not familiar with the e-renter site. I have always pulled my reports directly from Experian or Transunion. On those reports, I don't believe I have ever seen "invalid", and I have personally reviewed in excess of 5,000 reports. I HAVE seen "deceased", "SS# not issued","issued in last five years", and "no records found". I have also had the name associated with the number come back completely different, or of a different sex. It is also not too uncommon for an applicant to transpose numbers (intentionally or not), so you need to double check that their ID or paycheck stubs matches what they wrote on application. There are a variety of reasons you may get one of the above notations, so I do not rule someone out based solely on that. You have to look at the whole application package, and put all the pieces of the information puzzle together and see that they fit.

Going back to "invalid", I would try to find out how that company defines the term, and from what source(s) they obtain the info.