Synthetic identity fraud creates, in effect, a new person by selecting the right social security number (SSN). This is a new twist to identity fraud, which typically uses an existing person’s identity to apply for credit or government benefits. While this can be rejected, the resulting credit inquiry generates a credit profile for the synthetic ID in the credit bureaus’ databases. Once the synthetic ID is established via the generated credit profile (or credit file), the criminal ragain applies for credit, gets credit established, and then applies for multiple credit cards. “We’ve seen synthetic identity fraud rings which have seemingly obvious associations to organized crime – so that is a significant issue,” ID Analytics’ King said.

Source: Fox News March 09, 2018 14:15 UTC