The threat of Synthetic Identity Fraud
4 min readHollywood the boulevard of dreams, the king of cinemas and the junction of ideas, where stories become realities, where people live the story and make the story, where dreams are put on the screens. What does Hollywood have to do with Synthetic Identity fraud, a valid question. Most of you will think it actually has nothing to do with it and the writer is just pushing. The truth is you cannot understand the threat of synthetic identity fraud, unless you understand the implications of this fraud, and what better place to take examples from than Hollywood.
Cinema and Synthetic Identity Fraud
Now as far as synthetic identity fraud goes, let’s just explain it first. Synthetic Identity Fraud is not actually a stolen identity it is a false identity composed from different identities for example Social Security Number, Name, Date of Birth and address. All of these facets are true and real but belong to different people, this way a scam when identified cannot be attributed to a single person. It is a smart way to perform fraud and not get caught as most of the user identity verification checks are done manually. This is a massive loophole that can be exploited by any one and at any time.
Now how does cinema contribute or aware us of this type of fraud? Globally Identity theft has been a topic rejoiced and celebrated by countless writers and filmmakers and many masterpieces have seen the cinema screens. The most famous perhaps would be The Talented Mr.Ripley. The exact depiction of how synthetic ID fraud is done and how easy it is to manipulate the Identity authentication system that is working manually. However now checks have changed, owing to a digital world things have changed a lot of things including the identity data.
How to combat Synthetic Fraud
Synthetic fraud or frankenstein fraud as explained are a smart way to get away from any backlash if the con does not work. As this is not 1970’s anymore, to get away after a fraud like this is highly questionable, unless the scammer is paid in with the right type of people the chances of them getting away are dwindling in single digits. The advent of automated identity authentication systems which are plugged into several social channels has made it a hard task to bypass them. Not only this due to constant changes in the verification data and now as the digital identity is a reality to steal someone else’s identity has become more difficult.
Due to various checks and now the systems having the ability to cross check the data and match it with the face and liveness check has rendered the ability to perform a synthetic identity fraud to a naught.
Frauds and ID verification
2020 has brought with it sountless schemes and scams and they have done their part to deteriorate the already questionable customer experience. The pandemic stricken year is dubbed as one of the worst when it comes to economic expansion or stability. Every industry lost a lion share of their economics and assets in order to battle the un-expected operational halt. This left a loophole in the system and a lot of obsolete frauds came back into the world: credit card fraud, bank account fraud and the coupon fraud all emerged once more. The data regulatory authorities however made strict rules to control the fraudsters. Many new regulations came into light. These regulations were made for one reason to curb the freedom of the fraudsters, they called for new ways to perform user identity verifications so that the scammers cannot exploit anyone. Helped by digital means and backed by AI, many solution providers provided comprehensive KYC/AML checks and these checks led to further restrictions.
The overall AML/KYC directives demand a detailed background check at the time of customer onboarding, the customers must be checked against the global sanction list and screened for potential risks. The individuals must be classified with the level of risk associated with them to avoid any inconvenience in the future. The latest directives also bars business to form associations with anyone who is slightly shady in terms of financial services.
CONCLUSION
Although from all the provided frauds, synthetic identity fraud is something that might most of the people might not even be familiar with but have in some point of their life been a victim of it. The NFC enabled cards completely rendered this type of fraud as obsolete. As the NFC enabled document already has the saved information regarding a person so the possibility of it being forged is equivalent to zero. The electronic card cannot be manipulated and hence the possibility of one falling victim to synthetic identity fraud becomes zero also. The digital onboarding solution have made life easy for identity verification authenticators as they can perform KYC and screen individuals for money laundering.
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