FRAUD ALERT FOLLOW-UP: Improved Sharing of Death Records and Use of the Do Not Pay System Would Strengthen Program Integrity and Better Protect the Public

This update expands on our January 2023 Fraud Alert that identified 69,000 questionable Social Security Numbers (SSNs) used to obtain $5.4 billion in potentially fraudulent loans made in the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). As detailed in that Fraud Alert, PRAC data scientists, using our Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence, identified the questionable SSNs after determining that the names, SSNs, and/or dates of birth used in connection with COVID-19 EIDL/PPP applications did not match Social Security Administration’s (SSAs) records. SSAs verification results identified an additional 20,404 SSNs associated with deceased individuals. The PRAC worked with the Department of the Treasury’s Do Not Pay (DNP) system to obtain the dates of death for these individuals and identified dates of death for 15,307 of the 20,404 SSNs associated with 3,222 COVID-19 EIDL/PPP disbursed and undisbursed applications. This discrepancy is likely the result of Treasury’s DNP system not having access to the SSA’s full Death Master File.