Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Employee Screening - Identity Theft
According to a new article on the Society for Human Resources Website (SHRM.Org), identity theft has become the country’s number one consumer fraud complaint, and the crime has been elevated to the status of a felony. The article points out that a prime target for identity theft is employee information which each employer maintains in its human resources and payroll departments. Consequently, utilizing employee screening tools in staffing HR related positions is a great way to limit the misuse of sensitive employee information by a staff member.
A more common problem related to identity theft, that we run across in the pre-employment screening industry, is when applicants have had their identity stolen in the past. In performing criminal records research (an integral part of the pre-emlpoyment screening process), we usually perform a "Social Security Track." This tool pulls from credit report headers and other sources, and identifies the previous addresses and any other names/aliases that are associated with the Social Security Number (SSN). Often times, names come up on the Social Track that are completely unrelated to the applicant. Now, this is not always cause for alarm. Many times, the other names show up because a number got transcribed wrong when the applicant (or other person) applied for credit at one point. However, we urge applicants to check their credit on an annual basis (at least) to make sure no unfamiliar accounts are set-up in their name.
A more common problem related to identity theft, that we run across in the pre-employment screening industry, is when applicants have had their identity stolen in the past. In performing criminal records research (an integral part of the pre-emlpoyment screening process), we usually perform a "Social Security Track." This tool pulls from credit report headers and other sources, and identifies the previous addresses and any other names/aliases that are associated with the Social Security Number (SSN). Often times, names come up on the Social Track that are completely unrelated to the applicant. Now, this is not always cause for alarm. Many times, the other names show up because a number got transcribed wrong when the applicant (or other person) applied for credit at one point. However, we urge applicants to check their credit on an annual basis (at least) to make sure no unfamiliar accounts are set-up in their name.
