In addition, you can reach the SSA by phone. The details are available in this long description . They used to depend only on the SSA office that issued the number. The SSA regularly publishes tables showing the latest numbers being issued for each area. There is a persistent rumor that the SSA encodes ethnicity in the middle two digits.
Most people have an even number as their fifth digit, independent of ethnicity.
This is because these numbers are handed out in a strange sequence , and most regions of the country haven't reached the odd numbers yet. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse's SSN FAQ sheet EPIC's SSN resource page. The SSA's web pages Other Privacy Resources General Privacy CPSR's Junk Mail FAQ CPSR's Privacy-related Resources . EPIC's Privacy pages. The California Attorney General's office has some good suggestions and pointers to even more resources.