On 8th October, an article in Forbes reported a claim from Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions that the fraud represents 61% of fraud losses for large banks stem from identity fraud [and] 20% of the identity fraud incurred by these larger banks. It is explained that it creates a new identity using a real social security number with a fictitious name, driver’s licence and address; and that there are some cracks in the system that have allowed synthetic identities to proliferate – for example, in the US relies on social security numbers as identifiers. There is no way to validate a number with the US Social Security Administration, which now uses random numbers, eliminating the geographical distinctions that would help identify fraudulent numbers or users.
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