Synthetic Identity Theft: When Everybody Knows Your Name

Synthetic Identity Theft: When Everybody Knows Your Name

You probably have a place where everyone knows your name — and maybe your address and your birthday and your favorite drink. That place could be your favorite restaurant, your office or your grandma’s house. It doesn’t matter where that place is; when everyone in the room greets you by name, it gives you a warm feeling inside, knowing this is where you belong. But threat actors are using this same kind of information and feeling of comfort to commit synthetic identity theft.


There’s another place that could also know your name and many other details — the dark web. Cyber criminals harvest personally identifiable information (PII) from wherever they can find it and sell it on the dark web. From there, they can use that information for fraud. Many believe these thieves need a lot of information about you to do any harm. Really, all they need is a single piece of information, such as your name, birthdate or phone number. Like Dr. Frankenstein, identity thieves take one or two pieces from many people to create one new fake person. This is synthetic identity theft, and it is an increasingly popular type of financial fraud.


The Rise of Synthetic Identity Theft


“[S]ynthetic ID fraud is the fastest-growing type of financial crime in the United States, accounting for 10 to 15% of charge-offs in a typical unsecured lending portfolio,” according to McKinsey.


Fraudsters use this fake persona in two ways. First, they could do a one-off use to get a credit card. They apply for the c ..

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