However, my SSN definitely got out there somehow (SSN is available in the credit header, according to the privacyrights.org article), and the freeze stopped some rampant problems I was having. The breaking point was when I came home one day to find a $2,000 Nordictrack rowing machine on my front porch which someone in far-away Wisconsin had ordered (which I assume they had intended to have shipped to themselves in Wisconsin). It took me a long time to get NordicTrack to agree to take it back and cancel the debt.
https://privacyrights.org/resources/availability-sensitive-i...
https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/10boag2/whats_the_...
However, my SSN definitely got out there somehow (SSN is available in the credit header, according to the privacyrights.org article), and the freeze stopped some rampant problems I was having. The breaking point was when I came home one day to find a $2,000 Nordictrack rowing machine on my front porch which someone in far-away Wisconsin had ordered (which I assume they had intended to have shipped to themselves in Wisconsin). It took me a long time to get NordicTrack to agree to take it back and cancel the debt.