Identity Theft: Synthetic Identity Fraud Outpaces Countermeasures Designed to Battle Identity Thieves -- Identity Theft Expert and Speaker on Personal Security
A widely televised and quoted personal security and identity theft expert said authorities ought to have anticipated synthetic identity fraud, the logical next-step for identity thieves to take.


/Fraud - Identity Theft News Articles/ - BOSTON, MA, June 29, 2007 - (IDTheftSecurity.com) Crafty renditions on the basic crime of identity theft have proliferated to become widespread threats surprising the news media and catching industry and governments unprepared. According to Robert Siciliano, a widely televised and quoted personal security and identity theft expert, authorities ought to have anticipated synthetic identity fraud, the most common of these new types and the most logical next step for criminals in this arena to take.

"Identity theft has been around for a while," said Siciliano. "Dumpster divers were stealing identities and committing credit card fraud long before the Internet saw identity theft go high-tech. The point is this: Identity thieves will use everything at their disposal to evade authorities. For years, nobody even thought to secure their garbage, and now nobody has thought to flag fictional identities. Authorities are again behind the curve, failing to recognize the identity thief's primary goal, the quest to evade law enforcement."

CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com and a member of the Bank Fraud & IT Security Report's editorial board, Siciliano leads Fortune 500 companies and their clients in workshops that explore consumer education solutions for security issues. A longtime identity theft speaker and author of "The Safety Minute: 01," he has discussed data security and consumer protection on CNBC, on NBC's "Today Show," FOX News, and elsewhere.

Whereas traditional identity thieves must assume the names of people whose Social Security numbers they have stolen, synthetic identity thieves create entirely fictional identities by combining existing Social Security numbers with fabricated information. The victim's name is never used, making perpetrators, according to recent reports by "Today's TMJ4" in Milwaukee, abc7.com in Los Angeles, and others, challenging to track down.

According to research announced by ID Analytics, Inc. (http://www.idanalytics.com/news_and_events/2005209.html) more than two years ago, synthetic identity fraud accounted for nearly 90 percent of all identity fraud and nearly three-quarters of total dollars lost by U.S. businesses. An announcement from the company this year (http://www.idanalytics.com/news_and_events/20070214a.html) reaffirmed the numbers.

Just last month Bankrate.com cited the research, which also suggested that nearly one-fifth of synthetic identity fraud events were undetectable by systems that rely on public record databases. In June, sources (http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/legal-privacy/41393.html) criticized the President's Identity Theft Task Force (http://www.idtheft.gov/) for overlooking issues pertaining to synthetic identity fraud.

"It is striking that the problem of synthetic identity fraud is just now getting attention," said Siciliano. "Identity theft and identity fraud are continually and quickly evolving crimes that demand assessments and countermeasures that are ahead of the curve. We must be as proactive as possible in thwarting and apprehending thieves who might otherwise indefinitely evade law enforcement as they decimate millions of law-abiding citizens' financial profiles."

Readers may view YouTube video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=eEnX_TzmuSk) of Siciliano using the breach of customer data at an exclusive tropical resort as context to discuss the dangers of Social Security numbers as all-purpose identifiers. To learn more about identity theft, readers may view video of Siciliano at VideoJug (http://www.videojug.com/interview/identity-theft-basics-2).

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Robert Siciliano
IDTheftSecurity.com
CEO
P.O. Box 15145
Boston, MA
United States 02215
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Fax: 877-232-9669
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