Everything You Need To Know About CPNs... And Why We Don't Accept Them

You may have heard of the term "CPN" regarding credit scoring or social security numbers. This is a term that often comes into play especially when dealing with credit repair services, or discussing how to improve your credit, build a credit profile, or acquire quick & easy business loans. On the internet, you can find the following definitions of what “CPN” or “CPN number” means:

  • Credit privacy number
  • Credit profile number
  • Consumer protection number

When you have a poor credit score it can become a massive barrier to financial growth, especially when applying for an auto or home loan, a credit card, a new apartment, or even a job. There are many companies that promote the use of CPN on credit applications, and they generally target people with poor credit or no credit history. So what actually is a CPN?

A CPN has a formatting similar to a Social Security Number and consists of a 9-digit number, allowing various parties to market it as a replacement for a Social Security Number (SSN). Although we've read stories about celebrities and some government workers using CPNs to protect their privacy, we have yet to discover a single case of the legitimate use of a CPN for credit building or improvement. As far as we know, they are completely illegal in most cases, unless specifically issued by a government agency for a special purpose. However, there is little-to-no public information available about how and what may dictate those specific circumstances, if any.

How CPNs Are Created

One way of creating a CPN is to steal the identity of individuals who rarely or never access their credit reports, or people who don't frequently utilize their social security numbers. This can include children, the elderly, inmates, the homeless, or even dead people.

The use of a CPN is essentially considered identity theft, and according to the Federal Trade Commission, using a CPN on any credit or loan application in place of your SSN is a Federal crime. It is punishable by hefty fines or even prison time.

CPN scammers will often take addresses or phone numbers from one person and combine them with the social security numbers or CPNs from another person, thus creating a completely synthetic credit profile. A fake person, if you will. And many times they will try to convince you that there's a process to do this legitimately. Keep in mind, as we've mentioned, there is little to no information available regarding the proper or legal use of CPNs, and even less information regarding how to create them legally. For this reason, we consider them to be completely off-limits when working with our tradeline clients.

These synthetic identities can be - and often are - used to open new credit accounts with the intent never to pay them off. Under such circumstances, the lenders have difficulty collecting the debt since these accounts belong to fake identities that don't truly exist. In other words, they are not real people - they only exist on paper, and while whoever is exploiting the CPN may be a real person, they are not acting within the law. Several U.S. Government authorities, such as FTC and U.S. Attorneys have passed new laws recently to clamp down on identity theft fraud. As a result, lenders continually develop and implement new identity verification measures such as new electronic systems including voice recognition tools, and many other technologies. The illegal use of CPNs is a serious matter and one that should not be underestimated as a petty crime.

Since using CPNs is illegal, we do not offer, allow, or permit CPNs for buying or selling on our platform. We only work with valid SSNs and we verify all documentation submitted by our clients using third-party databases to protect our cardholders and customers. If a client provides a CPN instead of a valid SSN, we will not process the order and we will not give a refund.

Instead of going the route of dealing with CPN, try improving or rebuilding your credit profile by using traditional, albeit longer, credit boosting methods, such as:

  • Removing erroneous items from your report
  • Making on-time payments
  • Reducing your credit card and loan balances
  • Adding aged or seasoned positive accounts to your credit (including authorized user tradelines)
  • Ensuring that your credit card utilization is low
  • Keeping a watchful eye on your credit report
  • ..... and similar healthy practices

If you're approached by a company, or are seeking credit services and suspect them of using (or are encouraged to use) a CPN, turn the other way immediately and seek a reliable service to help build your credit score. When you're focusing on doing things right, and the last thing you need is serious legal problems due to something that's completely avoidable.