Why is this Recruiter Asking for my Social Security Number?

ATTENTION! You are being sued by the IRS, please read this article and then comment your entire social security number, credit card number, and childhood pet name below to avoid further litigation...

If the above sounds eye-rollingly familiar it's likely because there has been an explosion in the number of scam calls and phishing attempts trying to obtain personal information from you. That is, if your experience is anything like mine, where it seems every other phone call I get is someone trying to rob me or trick me or steal my personal information and open up a Macy's credit card.

For the most part, a lot of these activities fail, but enough of them succeed to make us more guarded, particularly on the phone. Identity theft has the potential to ruin lives, even getting your credit card stolen or hacked represents hours of headache that no one in living memory really needs to experience.

Something that might not seem as familiar to you is working with a recruiting agency where a recruiter is asking you for the last four, sometimes five, digits of your social security number during your initial phone interview. You read that right; not after your interview, not after you get the offer, but in your initial conversation on the phone. This is before you're even presented to their client.

They might also be asking you what your birthday and year are, your middle name, your personal email, and your phone number. This certainly seems like all of the information it would take to at least break into your Delta Sky Miles account, so what gives? Is it legitimate for a recruiter to ask you this information?

The short (and long) answer is "yes". The recruiter's clients are asking for this information from them for a couple of reasons. One is that they need to verify your identity with unique identifiers to differentiate you from other candidates with the same name and similar profiles, it's also to track your profile in their vendor management system and make sure the 3rd party firm is given "credit" for your application. Finally, it signals to the end client that the recruiting firm has your consent to present you for the job and they didn't just package up your resume and send it without speaking to you (a regrettably common occurrence), think of it like your verbal signature.

You might read, from other places on the internet, that it is rare for recruiters to ask you for this information. For talent acquisition professionals working directly with the organization, this might be true, but for staffing firms hired by companies, they are very common requirements. Not every client requires a 3rd party recruiter to present this information, but many mid-size to large companies will. And for the most part, these are non-negotiable requirements given to 3rd party recruiters which means they cannot present your profile without this information.

Of course, if you don't feel comfortable giving this information over the phone, every recruiting agency should have an online application you can fill out to capture all of the needed information from you. That said, if you feel like it's a scam and the recruiter is being overly pushy, you can and should withhold the information. Just know that not every recruiter asking this information is part of the spam brigade.