The Electronic Transactions Association, a trade group made up of companies within the payments technology industry, says “consumers that choose to place one of these CPNs … (or another fake nine-digit number) on a credit application will be committing a federal crime, “ adding that “Our member companies detect and deter crime everyday through security technology built to prevent fraud and insulate consumers from liability.”
When asking about CPNs, the owner told our producers, “We build them.”
“We go into the system, we apply for this new credit profile through the Social Security Administration,” he said.
For a fee of $350, he told our producers he would sell them a CPN, but there was a catch, saying, “You use an address that you’ve never stayed at before, because any address you’ve stayed at is associated to your personal credit.”
“It’s 100 percent legal, we go to the FBI,” the owner continued. “I always tell people to go and do your research, go do your research. Some people say CPNs are illegal. The only reason they say they’re illegal because a lot of stuff comes up as fraud because a lot of people don’t know how to use them.”
But the Social Security Administration told ABC News that under no circumstances do they issue CPNs. Robert Feldt, an agent with the SSA also added that “despite what many of these credit repair websites imply… CPNs are not legal.”