Most people think of identity fraud as the theft of one person’s information. A widespread, fast growing threat is synthetic identity fraud. In synthetic identity fraud, a criminal might take the name of one person, the social security number of another and mix in some phony details to create a new fraudulent persona. The new personas, called “fullz” are then sold on the black market. Criminals use the fullz as they attempt account takeovers (ATOs) of legitimate existing accounts.
In a 2017 report by Javelin Strategy & Research, a record 15.4 million Americans were affected financial fraud in 2016, a 16% increase from 2015. Losses amounted to $16 billion dollars. Consumers pay for this loss in the form of higher prices and interest rates.
It's hard for consumers to spot this type of fraud in a credit report because some of the information resides in sub files, not visible in the parts of the report that consumers see. A consumer concerned about fraud will want to check their credit report several times a year. The social security numbers of children are prime targets, because the fraud may remain undetected for years.
One significant way financial institutions are fighting back against ATO fraud is with behavioral biometric authentication. With behavioral biometrics, a computer algorithm is used to learn the way you enter data, the speed of your typing, the pauses, the accuracy, even the pressure on a keyboard. If someone tries to open an account in your name, behavioral biometric authentication can identify the profile mismatch and shut the application down.
For consumers, good advice about protecting oneself against identity theft can be found on USA.gov: Identity Theft. How to protect yourself against identity theft and respond if it happens. An identity theft recovery plan is also downloadable.
How biometrics can fight synthetic identity fraud
By Kayla Matthews, August 28, 2017, on BiometricUpdate.com
Identity Fraud Hits Record Number of Americans in 2016
By Herb Weisbaum, Feb 2 2017, on NBCnews.com
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