The grant from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be used to develop software linking local DMV computers to those of the Social Security Administration in Raleigh to verify the accuracy of applicants' Social Security card.
If the information on applicants' cards does not match that of the SSA, they will be denied driver's licenses or identification cards until they can correct the record or provide additional identity verification.
"North Carolina is one of the first states to use this technology to reduce fraud," said NCDOT spokesman Bill Jones.
In states that have the verification system, almost 15 percent of entries come back as mismatches, said Wayne Hurder, director of the driver's license section of the DMV.
But Hurder said only a small portion of that percentage comes back fraudulent.
"Most situations we encounter in mismatches will involve slight discrepancies in names," he said.
Common incidents include people using nicknames or failing to change their maiden names to their married names on state records, he said.
Jones said fraud has been a problem in North Carolina for some time because there was no quick way to check identity against Social Security records.
Driver's licenses and ID cards might be issued, only for the DMV to discover a few weeks later that there is a mismatch that could potentially be attempted fraud.
