CPN, an acronym for Credit Profile (or Protection or Privacy) Number, is a recent and as yet (2010) unchecked method of identity theft

Identity theft

Identity theft is a form of stealing another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name...

. Legitimate, but unused, Social Security Number

Social Security number

In the United States, a Social Security number is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents under section 205 of the Social Security Act, codified as . The number is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration, an independent...

s are found by computer search; typically, they belong to children or long-time prison inmates who make no use of them. They are then sold to persons with poor credit rating

Credit rating

A credit rating evaluates the credit worthiness of an issuer of specific types of debt, specifically, debt issued by a business enterprise such as a corporation or a government. It is an evaluation made by a credit rating agency of the debt issuers likelihood of default. Credit ratings are...

s, who can make extensive purchases using the numbers. Credit checking services such as Experian and Equifax normally determine a person's creditworthiness by a simple lookup of their SSN, but these pristine SSN's trigger no warning flags. If the purchaser overuses the CPN to the point that they are denied further credit from merchants, they have only to buy a new CPN and begin the cycle over again.