Social Security Number verification (SSN verification) is a tool designed to weed out criminals, primarily identity thieves. As an employer, you want to know if your candidates are who they say they are. I don't want to pump out a great deal of fear and distrust, but identity theft is a much bigger issue than people think. Criminals are able to live for years under different names, ripping off people without consequence.

Do not allow your business to become a cautionary tale laughed about on the evening news or studied in college text books. Cutting down on employee theft and employee fraud is actually much simpler than you think. Business owners feel they need to install security cameras and perform routine inspections of their employees' work area. Most of this is unnecessary if the proper measures are implemented during the hiring process like performing an SSN verification.

What is SSN Verification?

This might surprise you, but SSN verification is exactly what you think it is. When your company performs a Social Security Number validation, the results will indicate if the Social Security Number your candidate provided is valid. If the number is not valid, a number of things could have happened.

The most common reason a social security number comes back invalid is simple human error--usually the candidate wrote down the wrong number or the people running the check read the numbers wrong. This is an easy fix. The next most common reason, however, is one far more dramatic. The person you interviewed has pirated someone else's identity.