Social Security Numbers

I have had to pass around Joyce’s social security to the hospitals during her stays there lately. I now have hers memorized as well as mine. We were both born in the same year and within a mile of each other, but our numbers are vastly different. I, being a curious person at times, decided to find out why. I would have thought our numbers might have been maybe a thousand digits or so apart because of the four months separation in our birth dates, but the numbers are radically different.
I went searching for answers and this is what I found. social security numbers Prior to 1972, the first 3 numbers were allotted by each state’s local social security offices. Each state had a bank of 200 or so numbers to randomize and to choose from. Those 200 numbers started in the upper north east and increased as the states go from east to west. The first link has a chart of the banks of numbers. The 4th and 5th numbers were selected by the section in the state where the person filed for a number. The last 4 digits were all that would distinguish you as the individual.
In 1972 the federal government changed that. They took everything away from the states and just started willy nilly post 1972 handing out social security numbers, so they might take a portion of numbers from the California area, mix in a couple from Texas, and randomise the last 4. One would think that they would check for and eliminate any duplicate numbers, but they do not do that. What they do for instance is if your name is John Doe and your SSN is 396-75-8017 and then there is another John Doe with the same number, they add another preceding digit or two to it in their files. You could end up as John Doe 1-396-75-8017 or John Doe 23-396-75-8017. This may sound crazy to you as it does to me, but it is what happens. How they sort things out when it comes to the retirement payout with 2 to 22 John Doe numbers is still a mystery. I found nothing addressing how they solve that problem. For the most part this occurs with illegal workers who purchase a social security card and number from a vendor. Social security has to keep track of any and all funds paid into the system, but due to federal laws they are not allowed to give out any information except to the future recipient. Social security cannot even tell the FBI so they can investigate a violation of federal laws concerning social security.