How to Find People by Social Security Number

If you have someone's social security number and need more information about him then you're lucky.

Finding people by social security number i.e. trying to find more information if you know the SSN gives you the biggest chances to contact that person. You can find how to do that below.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. VALIDATE THE SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER

   You can't really validate a social security number on the web but you can find if it's in the right format. See the Wikipedia article on social security numbers.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_number

2. SEARCH THE SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH DATABASE

   Their site is: http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

   Currently that is the only 100% free way to search for people by SSN. To search for living persons see the additional 2 steps below.

3. FOR AN URGENT ISSUE, FORWARD A LETTER USING THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

   Their site is: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/foia/html/ltrfwding.htm. For an urgent issue, this is the most effective way to go and the best way to contact a person.

4. IF YOU HAVE A SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER AND A FIRST AND LAST NAME AND NEED MORE INFORMATION THEN USE A BACKGROUND CHECK SERVICE

   Background check services can display more information about a person, for example, all types of public records, list of relatives and so on.

   There are lots of companies for this...and frankly speaking, most of them are big scams. If you deal with a company I recommend you deal with a good one with good reputation like US Search (you have a link to their website below on this page if you scroll down you'll see it under "Resources.")

   After you get to their page, look for the text saying "For an exact match, search by social security."

Resources

• US Search - great background check service