Verifying SSNs: Does the SSN match with someone living?
by Julie Conroy-McNelley
Question: What resources are available to bankers to verify that a SSN goes with a real living person and not someone deceased? We know of an ID fraud situation where they used the SSN of a person who had been deceased person 15 years and none of the resources we've used have picked up on it as a fraud. Is there any foolproof means out there to detect this?
Answer: Financial institutions can verify that an applicant is not using a deceased individual's Social Security number by checking it against the Death Master File, issued by the Social Security Administration. A quick and easy way to do this is by using IDENTITY CHEK, which compares the applicant data furnished against a number of databases, including the Death Master File. This can be done either as an automated feed that is transparent to the new accounts desk, or if IT resources are constrained, applicant data may also be keyed into the PPS' Web Service for online validation.
Early Warning Systems Boilerplate (formerly PPS)
For over a decade, Early Warning Services, LLC (formerly Primary Payment
Systems) has been an industry pioneer by facilitating cooperation and
information sharing among financial services organizations as a
best-practice means to help prevent fraud losses and safeguard the financial
assets of those organizations and the consumers they serve. A suite of
services delivers this intelligence to where it is needed most resulting in
billions of dollars in loss avoidance each year.
For more information, please visit www.early-warning.com.
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