“Frankenstein ID’s” refer to synthetic identities – a new type of fraud carried out by criminals that have created fictitious identities which are pieces of mismatched identities, some fake, some...

Synthetic Identity Fraud – The Frankenstein of Identity Theft
Jose
October 22, 2020
Contents
Abstract    1
Introduction    2
Fraud Methodology    3
Typical Victims    5
Conclusion    6
References    7
Abstract
While the problem of identity theft has been going on for decades, the tactics employed by its perpetrators have changed over recent years. Traditionally, criminals have been carrying out what is called true name fraud, stealing and transmitting personal information from a victim during major purchasing under their name. Additionally, credit lenders and banks caught up with what was taking place and introduced precautions to reduce the risk of this. These criminals switched to the so-called synthetic identity theft system that is difficult to detect. This new technique consisted of mixing false identities with real details, such as addresses and social security numbers, from various victims. They then admitted and invested everything with no intention to ever refund this false identity. Because not a single concise victim occurs for longer times, it is easier for the robbers to go undetected. The Federal Trade Commission has just stated that this technique became so common among ID thieves that in 2017 it represented 80-85 percent of all identity theft. This emerging challenge is still unknown to many people in spite of the increasing number of events. The purpose of this report is to remedy the fact that people should take action to prevent themselves from being victims by sharing information about synthetic identity theft.
Introduction
In recent years there have been increasingly growing harm caused by synthetic identity theft. A study carried out by Aite Group revealed that about $820 million of this kind of fraud was lost in 2017, a rise of 17 percent from the loss of $701 million in 2016. In fact, these figures are actually higher as the discrepancy between whether a real borrower fails a loan and the false identity has vanished is always difficult for lenders to produce. Various factors led to the rise in synthetic identity theft prevalence. Initially, chip-enabled cards (EMV) are being made. Since these new cards made it more difficult to buy point fraud, many fraudsters had to adjust and find a new way to sustain income. They could easily overcome this new measure of protection by absorbing the credit for false identity. The second cause to the sudden increase in Synthetic Identities Fraud was the move made to minimize the amount of identity theft cases by the Social Security Administration. This randomization now rendered it difficult for a lender to confirm if a social security number really matched; the borrower is other personal information. When other types of identity theft have become unsustainable and lenders find it difficult to check the authenticity of new borrowers, it is not surprising that a significant number of fraudsters have opted to turn to false identities.
Fraud Methodology
The first phase for a fraudster is to collect personal information that is used to establish its false identities, such as addresses and social security numbers, while committing synthetic identity robbery. Currently, search of private documents...