What is Synthetic Identity Fraud?

Synthetic identity fraud uses fragments of real data (often from data breaches) combined with fabricated details to create identities that pass verification checks.

How It Works

1. Obtain a real Social Security number (often from a child, elderly person, or the deceased)
2. Combine it with a fabricated name, address, and date of birth
3. Apply for credit — initial rejections create a credit file
4. Build credit history over months or years using small accounts
5. "Bust out" — max out all credit lines and disappear

Scale

• Estimated $6 billion+ annual losses in the US alone
• Fastest-growing type of financial fraud
• Children's SSNs are particularly targeted (fraud goes undetected for years)

Why It's Hard to Detect

• The synthetic identity doesn't match a real person, so no one reports fraud
• Credit bureaus can't distinguish synthetic identities from real people
• The "person" builds legitimate-looking credit history

Protection

• Freeze your credit (and your children's) at all three bureaus
• Monitor your Social Security number for unexpected activity
• Data broker removal reduces the fragments available for creating synthetic identities