Plastic People, Plastic Cards: Synthetic Identities Plague Finance & Lending Sector www.darkreading.com/cybersecu…

“As more banking, payments, and credit processes move online, fraudsters have shifted towards more sophisticated, longer-play schemes,” [says Jackie Wylie, spokeswoman for Middesk, a business identity platform]. “Synthetic business identity fraud often means combining real or fabricated business details to form a business entity that doesn’t exist or is controlled by fraudsters … [or] ‘piggybacking’ on real but dormant companies.”

Fraudsters are also gaining experience in how to extract the most value from the synthetic identities. Now, a common tactic involves fraudsters “nurturing” their synthetic accounts by making legitimate payments for a period of time to build a positive credit history, says TransUnion’s Daughdrill.