I know there is a lot of discussion on this board about credit scores, identity theft, etc. and read an article I wanted to share. It seems that the newest form of identity theft is not stealing someone's identity, but stealing parts of one and making up the rest, also known as synthetic identity theft.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...al-credit-cards
Originally Posted By: Bloomberg
Synthetic fraudsters buy stolen SSNs or try to guess numbers not in use, then combine them with a sham identity. Using other people’s real addresses, they begin applying for cards. Banks usually reject the first requests after seeing that the applicant has no credit profile. Still, the banks’ inquiries generate placeholder profiles with a credit bureau. Thieves keep applying for cards until a lender eventually opens an account. Then the long con starts. Fraudsters can spend years faithfully paying the monthly bills for the cards—which they may have forwarded to P.O. boxes or their own homes—while watching credit limits tick higher. After an identity is established, they sign up for more cards. They may add authorized users to the accounts, establishing additional identities that can later seek their own credit. When the scheme is ripe, the fraudsters charge everything to the hilt, a phase commonly known as “busting out.” Payoffs can stretch into the tens of thousands of dollars. The identities are then discarded.
Originally Posted By: Bloomberg
The most prized data for synthetic fraud are the SSNs of people who don’t use credit, including infants and children, because they give the thief a blank slate to work from. For decades, banks easily deflected attempts to use a child’s SSN because the owner’s birth year was baked into their digits. But in 2011, the Social Security Administration began randomizing numbers from start to finish.
Enjoy!
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...al-credit-cards
Originally Posted By: Bloomberg
Synthetic fraudsters buy stolen SSNs or try to guess numbers not in use, then combine them with a sham identity. Using other people’s real addresses, they begin applying for cards. Banks usually reject the first requests after seeing that the applicant has no credit profile. Still, the banks’ inquiries generate placeholder profiles with a credit bureau. Thieves keep applying for cards until a lender eventually opens an account. Then the long con starts. Fraudsters can spend years faithfully paying the monthly bills for the cards—which they may have forwarded to P.O. boxes or their own homes—while watching credit limits tick higher. After an identity is established, they sign up for more cards. They may add authorized users to the accounts, establishing additional identities that can later seek their own credit. When the scheme is ripe, the fraudsters charge everything to the hilt, a phase commonly known as “busting out.” Payoffs can stretch into the tens of thousands of dollars. The identities are then discarded.
Originally Posted By: Bloomberg
The most prized data for synthetic fraud are the SSNs of people who don’t use credit, including infants and children, because they give the thief a blank slate to work from. For decades, banks easily deflected attempts to use a child’s SSN because the owner’s birth year was baked into their digits. But in 2011, the Social Security Administration began randomizing numbers from start to finish.
Enjoy!