Dear All:
My 20 year old, college-enrolled daughter wants to start saving early, so has applied for a Vanguard account to hold some money she inherited. Because she is so young, with no credit history, they've asked her to verify her ID through various means (copy of driver's license, passport, etc.), which isn't a problem.
The problem instead is this. The letter she received from Vanguard's compliance department included the following ominous sounding comment: "In addition, our verification process found that the Social Security number that you provided is associated with a different individual." They recommended that my daughter contact a credit bureau.
My daughter called the Social Security Administration, and was advised verbally over the phone that there are no problems with her number.
Still, I suppose a third party somewhere out there -- either intentionally or accidentally -- may have used, or is still using, her SSN.
Any ideas how we should chase this down? I suppose it could be a classic case of identify theft, but we've never dealt with a comparable situation.
Thank you very much.