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SS number

July 03, 2011 05:18AM
Is it customary & safe to give your SS number to a secret shopping co.
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July 10, 2011 06:08PM
I would under no circumstance give out SSN. You may want to get a EIN (employee identification number) from IRS. It is free can be done on web and is instantaneous. Almost all legit companies accept EIN. Few who don't drop them.

I just started doing this and have been kicked out by couple of them. Don't bother with MarketForce and Maritz.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2011 06:10PM by anakin.
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July 10, 2011 06:41PM
In my area having an EIN opens the door for a lot of state and local hoops to jump through and expenses, plus a DBA registration if you are not using your name. Fraud can be committed against an EIN just as easily as against a SSN, so there is no way that I would be willing to do shops with an EIN unless I was setting up an LLC or an S Corp.
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July 18, 2011 04:07PM
I don't know about other companies but we tell our shoppers that if they are not comfortable giving out their SS# they can put a zero in each box. But we will need it if they make more than $600 in a tax year. Most of our shoppers are happy with that and when they have been with us long enough they will add their SS# at a later date. Hope this helps.
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July 18, 2011 04:14PM
Some companies you can not register with zeros because that SSN is 'registered' already :-). Recently a shopper mentioned frustration about not getting paid for a shop. They had registered with a repeating digit such as 555-55-5555 and the company systems would not allow paying them. The shopper was unable to change their SSN with their registration themselves on their profile. It was eventually sorted out, but did make life unnecessarily frustrating for the shopper.
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July 18, 2011 05:29PM
Using an EIN is no improvement over using your SSN, and may raise other problems. Your SSN is already spread all over kingdom come, just live with it.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
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