I agree with your post.
In addition, anyone who retires at age 62 is limited to how much they can earn and still collect benefits. Someone reporting income subject to ss tax under a stolen number will reduce or eliminate benefits to whomever they stole the number from, if that person retired at age 62.
Anyone who thinks this is a little problem that could be corrected by a few phone calls to ss, is nuts and has never dealt with a gov agency.
Another good point of many reasons why identity theft is a bad thing!