Initiative offers better access to updated death master file

Financial and security firms, insurance companies and government agencies now have easier access to the Social Security Administration's Death Master File, which can aid them in their efforts to prevent identity fraud. The National Technical Information Service and the SSA are working together to offer the Death Master File more frequently and with fewer delays. The file also will be updated weekly.

Investigations following the Sept. 11 attacks have found that the Social Se-curity numbers of deceased individuals were used illegally to commit identity fraud. Until this initiative, financial institutions, insurance companies, state and local governments, and other parties had to wait to check applications against month-old rosters of recent deaths. Now, applications can be checked more frequently.

The DMF updates file, which contains new deaths, changes and deletions to the DMF full file, is now being distributed as a weekly subscription. The weekly and monthly updates files also are available electronically, which can reduce hand-ling and production time.

Information about the subscription fees for the different file formats is available online at https://dmf.ntis.gov.