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Do you or your team use "sample" SSN's in communications to a customer?
If you or your team has a need to send a customer a "dummy," "sample," or "fake" US Social Security Number (SSN) - we would ask that you use one of the following in any official communication from the Shared Services Center.
There are other numbers that are "fake" but match valid formatting - however, the numbers below pretty easy to spot as "not realistic" in nature.
We ask that you use one of the numbers in the first table below as your "sample" or "dummy" Social Security Number when communicating with customers. This ensures that the Tech Team does not institute additional checks or contacts with ITS Teams or other SSC teams to verify that the SSN is or is not 'real' - it will save everyone time.
This table indicates Sample SSN for testing (not valid)
| Sample SSN |
Notes |
| 001-01-0001 |
Invalid area number (The area number is the first section of three digits; 001 is an invalid area number) |
| 900-01-0001 |
Invalid (900 series excluded) |
| 000-00-0000 |
Any segment containing only zeros is permanently considered invalid (If any of the 3 sections of the SSN contains all "0's" = invalid) |
| 123-45-6789 |
Commonly used test number (not valid for production) |
Explanation of SSN structure
| Part of the SSN |
What's it called? |
Information/Explanation |
| 1st 3 digits |
The Area Number |
Originally indicated the state that a SSN was applied for inside of - since 2011, these are randomized. Area numbers starting with 666 are never assigned. Also any number from 900 - 999 are not assigned for this series of numbers. |
| Middle 2 digits |
The Group Number |
Internal number for SSA tracking. Never assigned consecutively. |
| Last 4 digits |
The Serial Number |
From 0001 to 9999 and assigned in order as they are ran. 0000 is NEVER used. |
Please visit this linked website if you'd like more information on the details of how a SSN is structured.