Why Social Security number needed?

A couple of recent letters to the Fence Post have railed against the poor service of Comcast. I agree. I've had nothing but trouble with repeated phone outages and mysterious bill increases with my mother-in-law's service in Glendale Heights.

I got fed up with them and was attempting to switch to AT&T when I ran into a snag with that company. In order to get service, however, AT&T insists upon a Social Security number. In this age of identity theft what business, do they have with a person's Social Security number? The AT&T representative said, "Our TV equipment is very expensive, so we have to run a credit check; it's company policy."

I offered a credit card instead, but, that wouldn't suffice. For telephone and Internet service they don't require the Social Security number. So, let me get this straight. AT&T has to run a credit check on me because their equipment is more expensive than my credit card limit? So then, what do they do with my Social Security number? Do they try to approve me for a $30,000 or $60,000 loan to cover their equipment? Something just isn't right with this picture.

Experts on identity theft constantly advise us to not give out our Social Security number. I see no legitimate reason why AT& T should require it. If it's their policy to not provide TV service to people without a Social Security number, then AT&T can keep their TV service.

Brian Van Dine

Carol Stream