Fraudsters develop synthetic identities by combining personal information from various individuals and combining them into a new, hybrid identity that only exists in the virtual world. Fraudsters use this information to open new bank or credit card accounts. Financial institutions usually are the victims of the fraud because there’s no individual victim; losses generally get written off as bad debt. Fraud prevention: Foiling Synthetic Identities is difficult, says Claudel Chery of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Chery recently gave a presentation on synthetic identities at ISMG’s Fraud Summit 2013.”]
Source: https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/fraud-prevention-foiling-synthetic-ids-a-6234