The damages from fake identity and identity spoofing are in the billions of dollars, and they are rising faster than any other type of identity fraud. Identity thieves who use fake ID for online verification are skillful and well-informed. To construct a new identity, they combine actual and made-up information. Once this identity has been created, the fraudster has a brand new persona from which to carry out an endless stream of fraudulent acts. Fraudsters using a stolen identity can go unnoticed for a long time while they rack up debts in their name. The fraudster will set up and operate various financial accounts before making a final, massive cash withdrawal and disappearing forever. According to Forbes fake identity fraud can cost up to $5 billion by 2024.
True identity fraud is when someone uses a person’s real identity information. This is what most of us think of when we think of identity theft. A thief uses someone’s actual date of birth, social security number (SSN), credit card information, or other personally identifiable information (PII) to create new accounts or take over existing accounts. On the other hand, synthetic identity fraud works differently depending on how the criminal operates, so it can affect you as a victim differently.
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Techniques to Create Fake Identities
Various techniques are used by criminals to make fake identities. Some of them are
Manual Alteration
The tampering of original documents issued by a legal authority and stolen from its rightful owner is a process of manual alteration. Fraudsters change or delete identifying elements, such as pictures or names, on physical documents. The original documents contain security features such as machine-readable zones (MRZs), holograms, UV elements, etc. These forged IDs may contain mismatched holograms, or MRZs that do not match the document, and lack the expected UV features. When sophisticated criminals make these changes to make forged documents, they are often invisible to the human eye and official authorities.
Counterfeiting
Some fake identity and identity spoofing are created completely from scratch. Fraudsters use authentic stamps, ink blots, holograms, and dull UV paper to create realistic-looking fake passports or fake ID cards, creating counterfeits that are virtually indistinguishable from genuine documents.
These forgeries allow fraudsters to use the fake ID for online verification multiple times with different fake credentials, so systems that recognize duplicate fields are essential to prevent fraud. Inconsistent photos and deviations from strict documentation requirements can also indicate a false identity. The indicators of forged documents are visual cues, including irregularities in font, spacing, and design.
Deepfakes
To create fake videos or high-quality audio recordings involves the use of artificial intelligence, particularly deep learning algorithms. These algorithms analyze existing audio and video and recreate them as if the person were saying or doing something they never did. This can be used in phishing attempts or identity spoofing, where fraudsters use stolen or altered credentials and attempt to impersonate the owner during verification.
Also Read: what is Deepfake
Computer Simulation
Synthetic identity fraud combines original data with fake identity data. This includes the sale of pre-made blank documents designed for specific identity types. In addition, digital services allow people to create fake ID cards, fake passports, or fake driving licenses. These methods are fast and economical and many fakes are made this way.
How to avoid Identity Fraud?
Identity theft is one of the most difficult types of fraud to detect and prevent. The methods used by financial institutions may not be strong enough to detect fraud. Fake identity appears to be genuine customers with limited credit reports. However, we can still take action against this big scam.
How institutions can prevent identity fraud?
- The use of biometric features of the customers, such as facial recognition and fingerprints can reduce losses faced by financial institutions.
- Companies need to identify unusual customer behavior using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms.
- Organizations must improve measures taken to share and store personal data.
How Individual customers can prevent identity fraud?
- Always check your and your children’s credit reports for activities that may indicate identity theft.
- Keep your documents safe.
- If you think your identity has been compromised freeze your credit. You can prevent scams this way from doing you any more damage until you remove them.
- You can protect yourself from many scams by using multi-factor authentication
- Beware of social engineering scams
- Do not give your security number to an unauthorized company or person.
- Irregular emails are a good sign that your data has been compromised. Check your email regularly
How to Spot a Fake ID?
Identity spoofing, Fake identity, and document forgery are common threats related to money laundering and terrorist financing that are difficult to combat without artificial intelligence machine learning tools, and human expertise. However, it is hard to ignore that today’s fraudsters are also well-prepared. It is the responsibility of individuals and businesses to choose the right KYC verification method with the help of KYC AML guide when the customer walks in, during important business and other commercial activities.
