What鈥檚 the most important number for you this tax season? The amount of your refund? The amount you owe? The number of hours spent poring over all the other numbers?
All of those are pretty important, but none of them are as important as your Social Security number, at least not in the larger scheme of things.
That鈥檚 the number that puts you at greatest risk for identity theft, and, at this time of year, there are plenty of opportunities for potential thieves to nab it. It鈥檚 on the W-2 forms you get in the mail, the return you mail (or send electronically) to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and perhaps even in an email between you and your accountant.
If someone does steal your Social Security number (SSN), they can use it for more than just opening new credit accounts. Th