Red Flags - Verifying SSN & Date of Birth

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Question:

I am working on my red flag program. One of the red flags is the Social Security numbers does not correspond with the date of birth. I have been on the Social Security and FTC websites looking for a list that we can use to verify that the number does correspond to the date of birth, but I cannot locate any chart to assist with this. Do you know where I can find this information?

Answer:

You won't find such a list, at least not one that shows a direct relationship between a number and a year of birth. What you can find are lists showing when and where a block of Social Security numbers was issued, so you might discover, for example, that an individual provides a number that was issued ten years before his or her birth. That would be a red flag. The practice of people for acquiring Social Security numbers has changed greatly and the changes affect any ability to relate number blocks with birth years. When I was growing up, most people didn't apply for a number until it was time to go to work for taxable income. I got my number when I was fourteen. In today's environment, parents need to obtain numbers for their children soon after their births in order to claim them as dependents for tax purposes.

First published on BankersOnline.com 9/22/08