sometimes mistakes are made assigning numbers, and sometimes someone steals an identity. Milo, since you were denied credit you can get a report for free from EXPERIAN or one of the other 2 reporting companies. I think that you can go online and do it. I'd do it today! Since you are so young and haven't really established a credit history of your own it may be best to get another SSN if you can. And then you can have alerts put on your name/number in case anyone ever tries to open an account using your SSN.
Dan, I had someone use my AMEX and when I got a report from EXPERIAN it showed all the accounts that I had had in the past, which are open, which are closed, and who has done a credit check on me recently. It is very eye-opening. Some accounts that I had asked to be closed years ago were still open. And some companies, like magazines, were checking my credit scores without my knowledge. About a month ago SHAPE magazine called me to say I had excellent credit and if I ever needed any help with anything they would be willing to assist me. Isn't that weird???? I told them to remove my name and info from their files and to not access my info ever again! I mean really! A $15.00 magazine subscription and they were given access to my personal files! THAT is scary!