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All right, here’s something to think about while you’re running those credit card come-ons through your handy double-cross-cut shredder: How much would it take for you to allow your Social Security number to run in 24-point bold type in a 4-column spread in the A-section of the Chicago Tribune? Oh, and your name, full home address, photograph and details of your family life will be included.
In 1973, $500 did the trick.
Leave out the photo, the bold type and fancy write-up and people ran their name, address and Social Security number for all of Chicagoland to see for 10 bucks.
Gayle and I were sorting though some old family keepsakes when we came across a yellowed page from the old Chicago Today, an afternoon tabloid published by the Chicago Tribune Co. through the mid-1970s. The paper was running an ongoing contest that asked readers from across Chicago and the suburbs to send in their Social Security numbers. Every day, 24 of those numbers were published and if alert, loyal readers spotted their number, they won cash prizes and a little bit of fame to boot.
Well, on this particular day, Gayle’s grandmother was the grand-prize winner. Her $500 would help her take a trip to Florida.
Doreen Klyczek of Beachview Terrace claimed 20 bucks in that day’s contest and Mary Furlong had an extra 10 bucks to take home to Dixon Street.
We put the paper aside, careful not to let it get mixed into the pile of Nana’s papers we were planning to shred — decades-old bank statements, canceled checks and other papers we’ve trained ourselves to regard as bearing the mark of inevitable financial ruin should they ever leave our hands legible and intact.
Yeah, I hear, I hear - times have changed - things were different - nobody had to worry about identity theft way back when ...
Maybe. But I don’t think so.
Back in the ’70s, a Social Security number was put to about the same uses it is today — primarily to keep track of Social Security and provide a second 10-digit personal ID on various and sundry accounts.
It was a pretty important bit of personal information back then, just as it is now, but back then people had it printed on their check blanks (along with a driver’s license number, phone number, account numbers - most people turned over their whole personal financial identity every time they bought a pizza) and generally handed it out like mini-Sweet Tarts on Halloween.
As for the rest of their financial stuff, once people felt they were in the clear from an IRS audit, the bank statements and canceled checks went in the trash with the egg shells and potato peels. The possibility that some dark-souled ne’er-do-well might take advantage of some syrup-smeared scrap to make believe he was you never much crossed anyone’s mind. Though, no doubt it happened.
Fast talking, quick-thinking, sticky-fingered grifters didn’t have to wait for the ATM or a high speed Internet connection to relieve the unlucky of what was legitimately theirs. Armed with a smile, a bit of slick patter and a few bits of information, the charming stranger could empty a bank account, take out a mortgage or sell off the family jewels — the advent of the Internet only allows them to do it in their underwear.
From what we can tell, Nana collected her $500, enjoyed her bit of fame and good fortune, then went on with her life. Better than 4 million people had easy access to all the information they needed to turn themselves into Evelyn Gehrke, but nobody bothered.
Yeah, but things were different then - for instance, there was more crime.
No, I don’t think it’s particularly bright to post your personal financial data where every Tom, Dick and Hussein can see it — even if it earns you the chance to win $500 (that would be about $2,300 now, adjusted for inflation). But it also goes to show most people - darn near all people - would pay it no mind.
The old Chicago Today Social Security Sweepstakes is a reminder that the world is really a lot safer place than we believe it to be. A place pretty much populated by decent, honest people who tend to mind their own business and look out for their neighbors.
Unfortunately, they don’t buy as many newspapers as they used to. The sweepstakes - a circulation-building gimmick - didn’t do the trick. The last edition of Chicago Today rolled off the press Sept. 13, 1974.
For Jerome’s comments on this, that and something else, check out “Up on the wrong side of the bed” at www.rivervalleyblogs.com/jerome or go to www.winonadailynews.com.
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tito_tat2 wrote on Nov 24, 2008 9:27 AM: