SSA maintains a national file of death information, the Death Master File (DMF). Under the Freedom of Information Act, we are required to disclose the DMF to members of the public.
Credit reporting companies, banks and mortgage companies use the information in the DMF to prevent people from applying for credit if they are using the SSN of someone identified as deceased.
Although the Death Master File is not available online from SSA, the United States Department of Commerce's National Technical Information Service (NTIS) offers a subscription service for online queries of the Death Master File through their website.
The Death Master File Extract of this information is also available for sale [on either DVD or electronic download] through our distributor, NTIS. The NTIS address is 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, Virginia 22161, telephone (703) 605-6060 or 1 (800) 363-2068, or through their website.
Please note that other parties have purchased SSA's Death Master File Extract through NTIS and then posted it on their own websites. Although these private parties call/refer to their own websites as SSA's "death index" or SSA's Death Master File, these are not endorsed by SSA, nor can SSA confirm that these private websites are kept up-to-date or accurate with SSA's death data in any way.
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