Protecting Missourians from Social Security Fraud, Identity Theft is Aim of McCaskill Bipartisan Bill

Bipartisan Senators giving Social Security Administration tools to authorize financial institutions to confirm birthdate, name, Social Security numbers to crack down on ‘synthetic identity theft’

WASHINGTON – Protecting Missourians from Social Security fraud and identity theft is the aim of new bipartisan legislation from U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, continuing her push for the Social Security Administration to require financial institutions to confirm names and birthdates match Social Security numbers in credit card applications.

“Scammers have left no stone unturned in stealing children’s Social Security numbers to open fraudulent credit cards—wrecking kids’ credit scores before they’ve even graduated high school,” said McCaskill, a former Missouri State Auditor. “When it comes to protecting Missourians’ hard-earned savings, and their identities, we need every tool available to stop this theft. This legislation would do just that—by bringing the Social Security Administration into the modern era with better verification steps to protect consumers.”

McCaskill’s legislation is also backed by Republican Senators Tim Scott of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan. Last month, the group penned a letter to the Social Security Administration urging them to implement these commonsense changes—changes that would be required under their new legislation.

Synthetic identity theft, a type of fraud that is estimated to be the cause of 20% of credit card loans going bad and leading to more than $6 billion in losses, uses a combination of fake and real identifying information to open up credit cards, establish financial accounts, and obtain forms of identification. Typically, a scammer would use a real Social Security number that has been stolen and couple it with a fake identity to open up credit card accounts, oftentimes for minors or children.

McCaskill’s bipartisan bill would require the Social Security Administration to modernize the verification system it maintains to confirm a Social Security number matches a name and birthdate, allowing for financial institutions to use it for applications for credit cards and bank accounts which are processed electronically. Currently, the Social Security Administration’s database to confirm whether a name, birthday, and Social Security number are a match requires written consent from a customer on a paper application, preventing these checks from occurring on most financial applications except for mortgages.

Continuing her long-standing commitment to protecting Missouri consumers, McCaskill introduced major bipartisan legislation to help protect seniors from financial exploitation, and help protect identities of those impacted by the Wells Fargo scandal and the Equifax breach.

Visit mccaskill.senate.gov/consumers to learn more about McCaskill's fight to protect consumers

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