The Essential Role of eCBSV and Socure's Commitment to Support

As the scale and scope of identity fraud continues to grow, adopting new tools to verify identities is critical. eCBSV (Electronic Consent Based Social Security Number Verification) administered by the SSA (Social Security Administration) has emerged as a groundbreaking tool to help prevent synthetic identity fraud and better confirm the identities of more consumers, particularly from Gen Z. 

While the service has only been available for a few years, some vendors are discontinuing their eCBSV offerings due to price increases from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and operational burdens, leaving their customers scrambling to continue their access to this critical service. 

If your organization finds itself in this position, know that Socure is fully committed to supporting eCBSV and welcomes the opportunity to ensure you can continue to derive all of the benefits with uninterrupted coverage.

What is eCBSV?

eCBSV — or Electronic Consent-Based Social Security Number Verification — is a service provided by the SSA in the United States. As the issuing authority, this service enables approved entities to verify if an individual’s name, date of birth, and Social Security Number (SSN) combination matches the SSA’s records, based on the individual’s consent. eCBSV operates electronically, offering a real-time verification process that enhances the accuracy and reliability of identity verification. 

Move Forward on Fighting Fraud With Socure eCBSV 

eCBSV represents a significant advancement in the fight against synthetic identity fraud and boosting verification rates of hard-to-verify populations. However, the service comes with challenges. Socure can remove the operational headaches of eCBSV, while delivering optimized workflows for accuracy, coverage, scale, and cost-savings:

1. Comprehensive, multi-layered identity verification

When paired with Socure Verify and Sigma Synthetic Fraud, Socure delivers an end-to-end solution that accurately identifies and approves good consumers at onboarding while alerting to suspected synthetic identity fraud risk. For cases of suspected synthetic identity fraud, Socure can check eCBSV for verification directly with the issuing authority as part of one streamlined process.

2. Minimize consumer PII collection

Reduce the onboarding abandonment and risk of data entry errors with an option of collecting just the last 4 digits of a consumer’s SSN, alongside their full name, and date of birth. We match the correct consumer and insert the correct first 5 digits of the SSN, and send the complete 9 digit SSN, full name, and date of birth on to eCBSV.

3. Additional context for “no match” results

eCBSV returns a “match” or “no match” result for the consumer PII that is submitted. The service requires submitted consumer PII to be an exact match, which can leave you unsure of next steps if a consumer returns as “no match.” Socure provides potential explainability for unverified results returned from eCBSV to solve for discrepancies such as marital name changes, typos, and miskeys.

4. Boost verification rates of hard-to-verify consumers

Socure already delivers industry leading verification rates for the next generation of digital consumers, starting with Gen Z. Our Verify solution can verify 30% more 18-year olds than competing solutions on the market, at a whopping 92% of Gen Z consumers verified across various industries. For the remaining Gen Z consumers that are unable to be verified, eCBSV can deliver an additional 6-8% boost in verification rates by confirming consumer identity directly with the issuing authority.

5. Scale and cost efficiency

With many customers already leveraging eCBSV through Socure, we can offer a lower cost per call than other vendors, or direct coding to the SSA.

With other Socure customers verifying consumers via eCBSV, if a consumer has been verified before by Socure, companies can avoid the unnecessary cost of duplicative calls to the eCBSV service by only verifying consumers that are unverified and represent a potential risk to the organization.

Finally, we consider a consumer’s verified status and train our model for Sigma Synthetic Fraud to refine our fraud detection algorithms, making them more adept at identifying suspicious activity related to synthetic identities and ensure the most robust defense available.

6. Management of consumer consent

The eCBSV service mandates that businesses must obtain the individual’s written consent before verifying their SSN. This consent must be documented and retained as proof of compliance. Socure manages all of this seamlessly to avoid awkward customer onboarding flows that can result in abandonment while providing the documentation needed for an audit.

7. Compliance with privacy laws

Entities using eCBSV must comply with applicable privacy laws, and relevant federal and state regulations. Socure ensures that individuals’ personal information is handled responsibly and securely complying with all privacy laws.

8. Seamless technical integration

Implementing eCBSV requires technical integration with the SSA’s systems. Businesses need to ensure that their IT infrastructure can support this integration, including secure data transmission and storage capabilities if directly coding. eCBSV is already fully integrated into Socure’s ID+ platform, which leverages consortium intelligence from 12 identity verification products to produce best-in-class CIP compliance and suspected synthetic identity detection, all within a single API. This means it can rapidly be deployed within your workflow and leverage the power of our identity and fraud prevention tools.

9. Ongoing monitoring and audits

Entities must undergo ongoing monitoring and regular, periodic audits by the SSA to ensure compliance with eCBSV requirements. This includes maintaining accurate records of all verifications and ensuring that consumer consent forms are properly documented. Socure streamlines records access to facilitate your audits reducing your operational burden to complete this eCBSV requirement.

Make the Switch to Socure

eCBSV stands as a vital tool in the fight against synthetic identity fraud and the verification of hard-to-verify populations such as Gen Z. Despite the challenges posed by rising costs and operational burdens, Socure is dedicated to providing uninterrupted access to this critical service. Using eCBSV saves companies time and money while offering unparalleled coverage for hard-to-reach groups. As the service is fully integrated into Socure ID+, the solution can quickly work to solve issues with fraud. 

By leveraging Socure’s comprehensive identity verification solutions, you can enhance accuracy, streamline workflows, and achieve significant cost savings. Trust Socure to handle the complexities of eCBSV, ensuring robust compliance, seamless integration, all while protecting your organization. Learn more about our solution here.