Challenge

Obfuscation fraud occurs when rental applicants deliberately claim they don't have a Social Security Number (SSN) or other critical identification information when they actually do. By withholding their real SSN, these fraudsters prevent property managers from accessing their true credit history, criminal background, and rental history records.

This deception creates a blind spot in your screening process. When you can't run a proper background check, you're essentially approving tenants based on incomplete information - potentially housing individuals with poor credit, criminal histories, or patterns of property damage.

Solution

Historically, it was relatively rare for someone in the United States to legitimately lack both an SSN and an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). Recent immigrants could typically obtain an ITIN from the IRS for tax purposes and often wanted to, which many screening companies could use as an alternative to an SSN for credit and background checks.

However, today's situation is dramatically different. There are now millions of immigrants in the United States who have neither an SSN nor an ITIN, and they need housing just like anyone else. ITINs are issued specifically for tax purposes to people who need to file federal tax returns but aren't eligible for an SSN, but now there are immigrants who believe it's a risk to apply for an ITIN leaving them with no unique identifier at all.