Atlanta appears to have become the poster child for a nationwide surge in rental-application fraud, and landlords are paying the price. Rent for a two-bedroom apartment now hovers near $2,000 a month — well above what most residents can afford, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. One self-styled consultant boasted about securing a penthouse using a $1,250 “Credit Profile Number (CPN)” package, complete with a nine-digit number linked to a spotless credit score, the WSJ reported. Those so-called CPNs are illegal substitutes for Social Security numbers, and using them on housing applications constitutes fraud. Similar scams have cropped up in other booming markets such as Miami, Houston, and the D.C. area, WSJ reported.