<prompt> Human: Car dealerships are often very sleazy. One of the tricks thats been attempted on me and relatives is the dealership stating that they need your social security number to complete a sale if you have your own financing.This is not true. The IRS rules on transactions over 10k are for cash transactions not bank checks. They are trying to get your social security number to run a credit report on you so that they can come back and try to talk you out of your own financing. This credit pull has the potential to lower your credit score depending on your circumstances.I buy used, my CU has better rates than dealerships plus Id rather deal with my CU over whatever financing the dealership has. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up because its something to be added to the long list of things to look out for when buying a car.Edit: Where are people possibly getting that Im saying a CU will always beat a dealership? I said my CU can beat the dealership. Additionally for the 100th time in the thread you do NOT need a SSN for OFAC. Edit3: thanks to uhelper543 for pointing out this OFAC scam last month. The fact that so many self described car salesman say you do shows just how pervasive the training they get to garner your SSN. There are apparently some states that require a SSN for titling but those are the minority of states, most only require a drivers license.Edit2: For the people saying The dealership would never run your credit without your explicit permission please read the dozens of replies where other people have said this happened to them. Advocating being cavalier with your SSN is terrible advice. Beyond negative effects on credit which I admit may only happen in certain circumstances giving your SSN out to people that do not legally need it is terrible advice.  <response>: Asked a dealer not to run my credit regardless of rate as I wanted to give my moms credit union she works for the business. I was told they needed my social to confirm I wasnt a terrorist, not because they wanted to confirm a backup payment option. They ran my credit anyway, and had the car not been a steal, I would have walked. Still pissed and will never go back. Looking back, I should have asked for that anti-terrorism documentation before putting my social down. Someone a few years back posted a contract they wrote up that they would have the dealer sign stating they would have to pay the person 3k or something should they run credit. The person ended up taking it to court and got the money. Really wish I could find it now. 