all-encompassingly

When a friend of mine from Argentina came to the U.S. to work for a few months, he told me how he bought a Social Security card in Miami for $25. Luckily, his name isn’t Jose Tinoco, nor did he get any loans using his “borrowed” number…

Camber Lybbert thought it was a mistake when her bank told her that her daughter’s Social Security number, issued by the U.S. government, was on their files for two credit cards and two auto loans, with an outstanding balance of more than $25,000.

Her daughter is 3 years old.

For Lybbert and her husband, Tyson, the call was the beginning of a five- month scramble trying to clear up their daughter’s credit history. As it turned out, an illegal immigrant, Jose Tinoco, was using their daughter’s stolen Social Security number, not in pursuit of a financial crime, but in order to get a job.

…

“From what I’ve picked up, he wasn’t using it maliciously,” said Lybbert, who lives in Draper, Utah. “He was using it to have a job, to get a car, provide for his family. My husband’s like, ‘Don’t you feel bad, you’ve ruined this guy’s life?’

“But at the same time,” Lybbert added, referring to her daughter, “he’s ruined the innocence of her Social Security number because when she goes to apply for loans, she’s going to have this history.”

Yikes.