Over the past couple of years, there has been unprecedented change in the world of financial services. The shift to online banking has accelerated the need for digital transformation. As a result, financial institutions are adopting a range of innovative technological solutions to ensure business continuity. But while the world’s leading financial services evolved, so did the criminals who use increasingly sophisticated methods to commit fraud.
One emergent form of fraud – and one of the fastest growing crimes in the U.S. – is the creation of fake identities for massive thefts. In synthetic identity fraud (SIF), criminals combine information found on the dark web (account numbers, social security numbers), social media (names, identifying information) and other sources to generate phony identities.