Synthetic ID Fraud: Slowing or Growing? 

Synthetic ID fraud isn’t something new: fraudsters have been using this strategy for years. Only, it’s become a new favorite. Let’s move forward to discover more about this type of fraud and find the right bad credit merchant account for your online transactions. 

 

Synthetic ID Fraud & Bad Credit Merchant Account

Synthetic identity fraud has to do with those cases when online criminals use a “new individual” using real and fake information. Sometimes, this info is totally fake. This way, fraudsters open up new credit cards or loans using the fake individual’s name. As a result, they can create credit records and boost the credit profile.

 

TransUnion reports that a number of industries saw a decline in synthetic fraud and outstanding balances for suspected synthetic accounts during the past year. The analysis of TransUnion data shows that the overall synthetic fraud balances accounted for $1.02 billion in Q2 2019: that number was $1.01 billion in Q2 2018. 

 

During 2017 – 2018, many serious data breaches occurred in the U.S. Millions of people were victimized. The Identity Theft Resource Center points to 1.632 data breaches in the country in 2017 and 1.244 in 2018. 

 

What are you doing to fight fraud? One thing is quite clear: you should work only with a respectable payment processor so that things won’t turn sour for you. With a true payment expert, you can get fast and easily approved for the latest fraud prevention techniques and a bad credit merchant account at the lowest possible rates. 

 

What Do Fraud Numbers Show?

According to McKinsey, synthetic ID fraud is the most rapidly growing type of financial crime in the U.S. LexisNexis Risk Solutions claims that “61% of fraud losses that large banks experience is caused by identity fraud. 20% of the identity fraud associated with these banks has to do with synthetic ID fraud.

 

The Aite Group reports that credit card losses caused by synthetic ID fraud made up $820 million in 2017. According to Forecasters, this number is anticipated to reach $1.3 billion by 2020. A recent white paper from the Federal Reserve’s FedPayments Improvement initiative shows that synthetic ID theft is an increasing problem and is on the rise.

 

To sum up, synthetic fraud has recently increased among credit cards. Overall, the growth in total outstanding balances for suspected synthetic accounts has declined. 

 

Author Bio: Blair Thomas has been a music producer, bouncer, screenwriter and for over a decade has been the proud Co-Founder of eMerchantBroker, the highest rated high risk merchant account processor in the country that provides the most secure and cheapest bad credit merchant account in the industry. He has climbed in the Himalayas, survived a hurricane, and lived on a gold mine in the Yukon. He currently calls Thailand his home with a lifetime collection of his favorite books.