When committing synthetic identity fraud, thieves fabricate identities using genuine data. Instead of impersonating someone else, they construct a false identity using credentials that were obtained from someone else.
In 2018, one of the most well-known cases of synthetic identity theft occurred in New York. By applying for loans in the names of other people, 13 thieves were able to steal more than $1 million.
How to stop fraud involving fake identities
1. Protect the information that can be used to identify you (PII).
2. Use secure, one-of-a-kind passwords for all of your internet accounts.
3. Make multi-factor authentication (MFA) available. It is capable of thwarting 99.9% of automated attacks.
4. Never divulge personal information to an unidentified source, and carefully review any message that requests it. Any links in emails that look unusually urgent shouldn’t be clicked.
