Synthetic Identity Fraud (Dictionary Entry)

Quotes

Synthetic identity fraud in a nutshell.

What is synthetic identity fraud exactly? In a few words, it is a type of fraud in which a criminal will combine real, stolen information and fake, fabricated credentials to synthetically manufacture a new identity. For example, the criminal may pair a legitimate Social Security number with a fake name, birth date, and address. Therefore, the synthetic identity is not linked to an existing individual. Synthetic ID fraud is mostly detrimental to the banking and financial services industry. The criminals’ goal is to use Personally Identifiable Information (PII) associated to people who have little or no credit history, so that banks and other financial institutions have no pre-existing credit files on them, making them less likely to be flagged. What’s the bottom line? Young people are more at risk, since they are less likely to have any credit history.

Bibliography

• Roquefort-Villeneuve, 2020a

See Also