Do the schools and pro teams really need your son's Social Security Number?

Do you leave it blank?

I really dislike the the information requests that are in the form of a returnable postcard! What a great opportunity for identity theft. All your bio info plus ss# on a postcard for everyone to read. I've been sticking the postcards into envelopes, but do they even need you social security number? I am sure the clearinghouse must allow the schools to use a name rather then ss# to access info??

I think you are smart putting the post card in an evelope. Social security #'s are use in cases with the same names..you be suprised how many players have the same name...in fact I remember reading about a club that drafted the wrong player (they had the same name but played different positions)

While it is not the norm to run a criminal check the ss# helps to do this. I would keep providing it but definately the way you are doing is good in my job we hear about identify fraud quite often and it it happens it is a real pain for the innocent victem

sampb

Thanks for the insight.

Drafting the wrong player sounds like they were being careless, if thats what really happened. I would think that there aren't that many kids with the same name, birth date high school etc. which in theory should be just as easy to look up as a social security number. I am curious as to what the pro teams use the social security number of prospects for? I am guessing that they don't run crimal check$ etc. until they are ready to $ign someone. Thus, I am not sure they need the ss# of a prospect until then. ???

What we did was put in the blank space the wording "available upon request". That way they would know we did not skip it - we simply don't want to give it out to everyone.

We did not have any problems doing that. A few did ask, but only after we were further into the process than simply filling out forms and cards.

In todays world it never hurts to be cautious.

AParent makes a good suggestion.

I believe that a student-athlete's social security number is needed when checking with the NCAA Clearinghouse, as well as many times when requesting a transcript from a high school.

Bob,
"Doing nothing is still a course of action"

We did not provide the SS on any of our sons questioniares. Once he chose his top schools, he provided those verbally to the coach upon their request.

You just can't be too careful these days.

_______________
"Baseball, it is said, is only a game. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole."

"JustMom"

We did not give out our son's ss# until he made his final choices. The schools that were the most interested did get it from us when needed, but we did not print it on the forms to EVERY school.

The only school that ultimately needs that information is the school where your son decides to go.

As a l.e. officer and seeing the long term havoc that id theft causes, do not give the ss#.