Don't give a company you're interviewing with your social security number. You only have to give it up if you accept their offer and become an employee. Genera

Don't give a company you're interviewing with your social security number. You only have to give it up if you accept their offer and become an employee. Generally this happens on the first day of work or when doing the on boarding paperwork...not during the interview process. Also, I find it amusing the tacit assumption that its somehow moral for companies to look up salary histories via credit reports but that interviewees don't have a right to know the salaries the company has given to other employees. The information asymmetry is part of the reason that this guy lied-- and to be honest, in 25+ years, I've never had a salary negotiation where the company didn't lie to me "oh, we can't afford that!" (when in reality they are just trying to lowball by pretending they don't have the money. It's a lie no worse than his.)