How Does Synthetic Identity Theft Work?
Little information is available to assist you in correctly detecting a case of identity theft before it happens. Merchants can identify one after the fact. Once the dust has cleared and the thief has abandoned the account in issue, the only thing left is figuring out which method they used.
- Manipulated Synthetic Identities: Identities based on real persons are less likely to raise suspicion, which is why this synthetic fraud is so common. To do this, fraudsters will make small changes to an SSN to hide a previous credit history and obtain credit.
- Manufactured Synthetic Identities: They are sometimes called ‘Frankenstein’ identities since they comprise personally identifiable information (PII) gathered from various sources. For example, fraudsters might create a phony identity with verifiable data points using one person’s SSN, another’s address, and a third’s account information.
What is Synthetic Identity Theft?
Synthetic identity theft, also known as synthetic identity fraud, is a rapidly growing fraud that occurs when hackers use stolen data and hide a previous history to create new identities rather than stealing and using existing accounts. They can use these fake identities to create fraud attacks.