Riverside, CA (PRWEB) February 17, 2014 -- Since implementation of the E-Verify program, most employers feel confident that they are taking adequate precautions with employment background checks to protect themselves from identity fraud and risk. However, USAFact, a leading nationwide provider of pre-employment background screening services for more than 36 years, is offering education to let employers know that E-Verify does not go far enough to make sure a Social Security Number (SSN) legitimately belongs to the employee being screened. Worse yet, many employers are using E-Verify pre-hire, which is a fineable federal offense.
“Business owners simply do not realize the risks they are facing by assuming E-Verify is an adequate, stand-alone employment background check solution,” said USAFact Chief Executive Officer Matthew Davidson. “Employers must do more in their pre-hire efforts for their post-hire E-Verify searches to be truly valuable.”
E-Verify was created by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to verify the worker’s eligibility. However, it does not do enough to match the candidate in front of you to the identifiers they’ve provided. A better federal government service, Consent Based Social Security Number Verification, or CBSV, from the Social Security Administration (SSA) does. Few employers are aware of the SSA service which was launched in 2002. Westat, a statistical services company, said that E-Verify wrongly clears illegal workers… because it can't detect identity fraud. E-Verify pulls from multiple sources with a margin of error currently at eight percent (8%) while CBSV is virtually 100% accurate.
To the point, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reported that there are over ten million more credit profiles in the system than there are consumers in the United States. The Office of the U.S. Inspector General (OIG) reports that 5% of CBSV results reveal a “No Match / Unsuccessful” result. These are would-be identity thieves attempting to pass their fraudulent identifiers through the CBSV system. Therefore, the percentage of fraud is higher for companies not using CBSV. Also, it means that there are more unauthorized individuals than first believed. A company’s work force could contain a fraudulent worker identity (false SSN) count of over 5% without any way of knowing it.
“Obviously there is a noteworthy disconnect between candidate applications and real Social Security Numbers,” Davidson said. “E-Verify is required nationally, but it does not go far enough to ensure a candidate’s identity matches the person you are hiring. There are better ways to verify an employee is who they say they are before you hire them, in addition to running free E-Verify searches after you hire them.”
USAFact provides employers a better way to verify employee identity while ensuring accurate results. Consent Based Social Security Number Verification is valid for any business purpose, valid for pre-employment hiring and matches Social Security Numbers with other demographic factors. If you care about preventing identity theft, this is the product for you, period.
“CBSV can match Social Security Numbers to name, date of birth, gender and death indicators to further validate identity,” Davidson said. “It bolsters the E-Verify system to help better protect the employer against fraudulent usage of Social Security Numbers. CBSV protects them against IRS and ICE audits and fines, and can be used pre-hire . . . unlike E-Verify.”
For more information on the CBSV program from USAFact, call 800.547.0263x2002 or view their website at http://www.usafact.com.
Erik Dahlen, USAFact, http://www.usafact.com, 720.833.4103, [email protected]
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