A thief with a Social Security number and little else can open a credit card, take out a loan, or file a false tax return in someone else’s name, often without the real owner finding out until a collections notice or a rejected application arrives. Two free tools close that door before it opens: locking the Social Security number itself so it can’t be used to confirm someone’s identity, and freezing credit reports so no lender can open a new account at all. Neither costs money, neither hurts a credit score, and both can be undone in minutes when needed.
The Two Free Locks That Actually Stop New-Account Fraud
A credit freeze is the stronger of the two tools: while it’s in place, nobody, including the account holder, can open a new credit account, because lenders can’t pull the frozen credit report to approve one. Anyone can freeze their credit at any time, for any reason, without having been a victim of anything yet. It costs nothing to place or lift, doesn’t affect a credit score, and requires contacting all three credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — separately, since freezing one does not freeze the others.
The Social Security Administration offers a separate, more direct lock on the number itself: calling 1-800-772-1213 to block electronic access to a Social Security record. Once blocked, nobody, including the account holder, can view or change that person’s information online or through the agency’s automated phone system, which shuts down one of the ways a thief could otherwise use a stolen number to reroute benefits or confirm identity details. The block can be reversed with a phone call whenever it’s no longer needed.
A third, narrower option covers employment-related fraud specifically. E-Verify’s Self Lock feature lets anyone with a free myE-Verify account lock their Social Security number against use in the federal employment-verification system, so someone working under a stolen identity gets flagged with a mismatch the moment an employer tries to run it. It has to be unlocked before starting a legitimate new job, but otherwise runs quietly in the background.
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Why a Freeze Beats a Fraud Alert for Serious Protection
A fraud alert sounds similar but does far less. It only requires a business to verify someone’s identity before opening a new account in their name — it does not block the account outright, and it doesn’t stop a business from pulling the credit report in the first place. An initial fraud alert lasts one year and is free to place by contacting just one of the three bureaus, which is required to notify the other two.
An extended fraud alert, available only after filing an identity-theft report at IdentityTheft.gov or a police report, lasts seven years and also removes the person from credit bureaus’ marketing lists for unsolicited credit and insurance offers for five years. It’s a reasonable layer on top of a freeze, but on its own it relies on a business actually following through on the verification step — a freeze removes that judgment call entirely by making the credit report inaccessible.
The IRS offers a companion tool for tax-specific fraud: an Identity Protection PIN, a six-digit code known only to the taxpayer and the IRS that must be included on any federal return filed under that Social Security number. A return filed without the correct PIN gets rejected, closing off the most common way a stolen identity gets used to claim someone else’s refund. The code resets every year, so it has to be retrieved fresh each tax season.
Enrolling takes a few different paths depending on how easily someone can verify their identity. The fastest route is through an IRS online account, where the PIN appears directly on a profile page once identity is confirmed; anyone who cannot pass online verification and has an adjusted gross income under $84,000 filing individually, or $168,000 filing jointly, can instead mail in Form 15227 and receive the PIN by mail within four to six weeks, and anyone ineligible for either option can make an appointment at a local Taxpayer Assistance Center. The IRS is blunt about one thing regardless of which path someone takes: the agency will never call, email or text asking for an IP PIN, so any message requesting the number, however official it looks, is itself the fraud the tool exists to prevent.
Putting Both Locks in Place Without Creating a Headache Later
The tools work well together and don’t conflict: a credit freeze stops new accounts across the financial system, while an SSA block on electronic access separately protects the Social Security record itself from being viewed or changed. Anyone who plans to apply for credit, a job, an apartment or insurance in the near future should note that a freeze needs to be temporarily lifted at whichever bureau the business checks, then can be reinstated once the application is done.
For anyone under 16, a parent can request a free credit freeze on a child’s Social Security number as well, since a number that’s never been used is a common target precisely because fraud on it can go undetected for years, sometimes not surfacing until the child applies for their first credit card or student loan. Checking a free credit report periodically for accounts that don’t look familiar remains the simplest way to catch anything that slips through before either lock is in place.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Money Overview editorial team before publication.
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