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TWN is not just for people lying on their on resume, but if you are concerned about an upcoming employment verification check, you have options.
Once your TWN is frozen, if a background check provider (e.g. HireRight) is using it as a reference, they will often come to you, asking about it being frozen.
There are a number of excuses you can provide, but only one that we recommend. When you read these, keep in mind that your goal during the background check is to remain as “boring” and under-the-radar as possible. You don’t want anything interesting to happen, you want the entire experience to be forgettable for your verifier. Every single time you cause them some concern, or make up an excuse that sounds strange, you work against yourself, especially if you are lying or are planning on working overemployed.
This is the excuse that we recommend you use – because it is the most reasonable response by someone that is not lying.
Think about the time you first learned about the Work Number. You were most likely researching ways to do overemployment or fabricating something on your resume. By and large, the TWN remains a mystery for most of the job-seeking population, and it is actually unusual for you to know about TWN to begin with. So if you are lying, and froze your TWN, why not simply act like someone that has never heard of TWN to begin with?
And then, if the recruiter explains it you, sound interested. “Really, they have reports that can pull that information? I had absolutely no idea.”
And if the recruiter asks you to unfreeze it: “I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Isn’t this something you have to do on your end?”
99/100 times, the verifier is just going to give up and move on… or even more likelier, they will blame it on a reporting error on their end, since you clearly did not freeze it.
Yes, Lie on your LinkedIn
And if for some reason they insist on you unfreezing your account, tell them, “Absolutely! I’ll get right on it!”. Then wait two days, and tell them, “I’m sorry, I tried, I spent an hour on the phone and no one would help me. The website provided does not allow me to login. I have no idea how to do this.” This is actually a very believable lie, because their customer service is absolutely terrible on the employee side (they have fantastic customer service for recruiters though).
Remember, the TWN is only one method they have at their disposal to verify your background, so they’ll just use those methods and skip the TWN.
“I am concerned about identity theft and have blocked the release of all my personal information.”
This one has worked for people, and on the surface, it sounds reasonable. But the problem is, in the recruiter’s mind, they think that TWN is a completely innocent service (they wouldn’t use it otherwise). Read the marketing materials from Equifax – they paint this as a clear win-win for the employer and the job candidate.
So if TWN is a great service for the job candidate, why would you be concerned about your privacy?
It’s just a psychology question there. If they like you enough, they just accept it and move on. But it does sound strange, and a recruiter will naturally think that the reason you froze it is because you are lying. You can give excuses that are reasonable, but recruiters are unreasonable people, and they could exploit any red flag you give them.
This has been used in a few cases, and it seems to always come off as contrived and suspicious. While there are probably real-life cases where this is true, recruiters are going to instantly start asking questions about this. Are you comfortable telling a complete fable about this? Or just telling them, “It’s private” as though that isn’t going to sound even more suspicious?
I would not recommend using this excuse.
How to Prepare for Verification
“I was the victim of identity theft and have blocked all personal information upon the advice of your attorney”.
This is a reasonable excuse, and a lot of recruiters will understand. It has reportedly worked for people in the over-employed community. However, it will still raise an eyebrow.
They might still ask you to unfreeze it. In that case, you might respond as follows:
“I keep my credit report frozen as a standard practice. I only unfreeze it as-needed, such as when making a purchase.
I’ve not yet had an employer request I unfreeze it for a background check. I would consider consenting to a short availability window if non-negotiable, however I would actively push back due to privacy concerns.”
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