I have always required SS card copy to verify the SS number. Sometimes, however, people don't have it, can't find it, or don't want to give it because they are worried about identity theft (which is the very reason I require it for identity verification-because it's the best way to verify the number that I know of, plus signature verification).

What do other LL's do to verify the SS number? Alternative documentation to verify? I was sometimes accepting a W-2 but now they are chopping off the number and only have the last 4 digits. Tax returns maybe if done professionally. Any other alternatives?

I have found over the years that an SSN number is absolutely useless. There is so much ridiculous security and troll bridging by people with them no one will even verify if their name goes with the number.

Drivers license is WAY better, and it has a photo.

I don't even have SSN # on the app anymore.

What Ray-N-PA said ... my credit says the same thing "verified" or "potential fraud (or some other thing about check their social/ identity, etc)"

Good discussion - I've never asked for the actual card, but the DL (or state ID) thought is good.

True story - back a few years, Homeland Security required that PA begin reverifying people who already had state DL/ID cards, using their physical social security card. I somehow missed that piece of info until about three days before my renewal was up (normally don't put things off like that). I hadn't seen my SS card in ages, once people were told to never carry them due to identity theft, maybe in the 90s.

I tore the house apart, then reluctantly concluded that a trip to the nearest S.S. office, 20 miles away, was imperative. As I gathered birth certificate and other ID required for that trip, I suddenly thought, "You used to carry that card in your purse - when was that, and where did it get to?" I realized that it was when I worked, prior to having children, and that I had a couple of those old purses squirreled away. Sure enough, the card was in a wallet in one of the old purses - hadn't moved in like 20 years at that point.

When I get a credit report from this site, it verifies that the number matches the name.