So, after that bizarre phone call on Tuesday with a recruiter from an IT company whose horrible oral and written English led me to believe she was a scam artist, i did some digging online and what I found was very eye-opening.
Why do recruiters keep asking for my Social and DOB?
Recruiters use Vendor Management Systems to track which jobs and interviews they submit their contractors to clients for.
But why do recruiters still ask you for your SSN over the phone or via email? They technically don't NEED that information to submit you for a role. It's actually illegal for recruiters to coerce you over the phone or via email for your SSN and birth date information, as though they "can't" submit you for a role unless you give that confidential information to them. But they can submit you.
Some of their clients set up "gateways" to prevent recruiters from sending "wholesale resumes" that they haven't vetted through their own agency via Onboarding the contractor (which is, you have the contractor complete their W-2 and fill out all the paperwork online to become a paid contract worker for that agency). Sending "wholesale resumes" wastes the clients' time b/c they can't control who the recruiter sends to them, which is why they set up the rule to the recruiter, "I need the contractor's SSN or I won't even read their resume." Some clients do this. Not all.
Quote:
This is where your personal information comes in. For most of these companies they require the last four digits of your Social Security Number(***-**-1234) and the Month and Day of your Birth (01/01/****). This helps those VMS systems to create unique identifiers to track what jobs you have applied to, interviews and those results, departments, locations, etc. It also is considered your Right to Represent. Meaning the firm that puts those magic digits along with your resume first, gets credit for you.
A lot of individuals I talk to accidentally give me their full birth date and full SSN. Don’t do this.
You don't need to, and the companies don't need the full information until you have an offer letter and are going through on boarding. There are a few companies out there that require the last 5 of your SSN, and that may come down to the brand of VMS that they are using.
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and this was interesting to learn...
recruitment - This Recruiter wants my Social Security Number? - The Workplace Stack Exchange
Quote:
According to the Social Security Administration's Legal requirements to provide your Social Security number, the following situations require it:
- Internal Revenue Service for tax returns and federal loans;
- Employers for wage and tax reporting purposes;
- Employers enrolled in E-Verify;
- States for the school lunch program;
- Banks for monetary transactions;
- Veterans Administration as a hospital admission number;
- Department of Labor for workers’ compensation;
- Department of Education for Student Loans;
- States to administer any tax, general public assistance, motor vehicle or drivers license law within its jurisdiction;
- States for child support enforcement;
- States for commercial drivers’ licenses;
- States for Food Stamps;
- States for Medicaid;
- States for Unemployment Compensation;
- States for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families; or
- U.S. Treasury for U.S. Savings Bonds
None of those situations are "to apply for a position", which is the situation you are in. You may refuse to give it, and I personally would until I was actually signing a contract/offer letter/payroll papers for a specific company.
You might ask why your Social Security number is needed, how your number will be used, and what law they think requires you to give your number, if they push you on it, and determine you final answer from there.
As to your specific questions, I don't know how common it is -- I've not seen a request for a social security number in this context in a long, long time, but that is just me. It's quite possible that you are working with a dumb recruiter who thinks he or she needs/is entitled to this information; similarly, you could be working with a scammer.
As for your response being warranted, it's perfectly reasonable to ask to confirm if the position exists and if Recruiter X is handling it, and that's the extent to which I would discuss it with them.
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Today, another recruiter from that IT agency emailed me to follow up from her colleague's phone call. I emailed her back that I would NOT provide her with my SSN unless it was part of Onboarding me to their IT agency as a contractor. I added, "I understand that your agency uses a VMS like most agencies do, but I would prefer to be Onboarded as a legitimate contractor first, before I let you submit me for contract jobs available through your IT agency."
Every temp agency I've ever joined, Onboarded me -- for my legal protection and theirs. I don't understand why recruiters at this IT agency think they can coerce me over the phone to give them my SSN just because of their verbal promise to submit me for roles, yet they won't let me come in and Onboard and join their IT agency as a contractor worker. That just makes zero sense to me.
Jul 25, 2019, 03:44 PM
This is an old thread. You probably should not post your reply to it, as the original poster is unlikely to see it.
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