Socure Publishes New Whitepaper on Growing Problem of Synthetic Identity Fraud

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Socure, the leader in Day Zero digital identity verification, has published a new whitepaper on the growing issue of synthetic identity fraud, the fastest-growing financial crime in the U.S. According to the Federal Reserve, lenders lost six billion dollars to synthetic fraud in 2016 alone.

Synthetic fraud is a gradual process in which fraudsters compile a false identity to resemble a person, then use the false identity to commit financial crimes. The ultimate goal is to compile data elements or profile attributes—taken from different individuals—to present a “new” face that can get past a first line of defense with an appearance of legitimacy.

The paper, titled “The Identities Are Fake, but the Consequences Are Not,” examines the phenomenon of synthetic identity fraud, the methods fraudsters are employing, and why financial institutions are particularly vulnerable targets. The paper also addresses how advanced analytics and data science are helping institutions grapple with synthetic identity fraud.

“Synthetic identity fraud presents some unique challenges for financial institutions,” says Jeff Scheidel, Head of Training & Development at Socure. “Because a synthetic identity is composed of very real characteristics, even if the name or person is fabricated, it may have been so imbued with sufficient history that it can pass an identity and a Know Your Customer (KYC) check.”

The paper examines the primary methods used to synthesize an identity, which include:

• Fabrication to create a completely fake identity containing no actual data related to an actual human being.
• Identity manipulation modifying actual identity attributes of the fake person.
• Identity compilation, the combination of modified and actual attributes, and the committing of the crime.

The paper underscores how difficult synthetic identity fraud can be to detect and deter, with no single real person to report the fraud. According to the Federal Reserve, between 85 and 95 percent of synthetic applicants are not picked up by standard fraud models.

About Socure

Socure is the leader in Day Zero digital identity verification technology. Its predictive analytics platform applies artificial intelligence and machine-learning techniques with trusted online/offline data intelligence from email, phone, address, IP, social media and the broader internet to verify identities in real-time. Socure powers financial inclusion, increasing acceptance as much as 40 percent for millennials and other thin-file consumers. It also reduces fraud for online new account opening by up to 90 percent, lowers manually reviewed knowledge-based authentication (KBA) rates by as much as 80 percent, and automates Customer Identification Program (CIP), Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance initiatives. Socure was founded in 2012 and is based in New York City.