My own post referenced the Auriemma Group estimate of a $6 billion cost to U.S. lenders.
McKinsey preferred to use a percentage estimate of “10–15% of charge offs in a typical unsecured lending portfolio.” However, this may not be restricted to synthetic identity fraud, but may include other types of fraud.
Thomson Reuters quoted Socure’s Johnny Ayers, who estimated that “20% of credit losses stem from synthetic identity fraud.”
Oh, and a later post that I wrote quoted a $20 billion figure for synthetic identity fraud losses in 2020. Plus this is where I learned the cool acronym “SIF” to refer to synthetic identity fraud. As far as I know, there is no government agency with the acronym SIF, which would of course cause confusion. (There was a Social Innovation Fund, but that may no longer exist in 2025.)
Never Search Alone, not National Security Agency. AI image from Imagen 3.
Back to synthetic identity fraud, which reportedly resulted in between $6 billion and $20 billion in losses in 2020.
The financial toll of AI-driven fraud is staggering, with projected global losses reaching $40 billion by 2027 up from US12.3 billion in 2023 (CAGR 32%)., driven by sophisticated fraud techniques and automation, such as synthetic identities created with AI tools.
Again this includes non-synthetic fraud, but it’s a good number for the high end. While my FTC fraud post didn’t break out synthetic identity fraud figures, Plaid cited a 2023 $1.8 billion figure for the auto industry alone, and Mastercard cited a $5 billion figure.
But everyone agrees on a figure of billions and billions.
The real Carl Sagan.
The deepfake Carl Sagan.
(I had to stop writing this post for a minute because I received a phone call from “JP Morgan Chase,” but the person didn’t know who they were talking to, merely asking for the owner of the phone number. Back to fraud.)
Reducing SIF in 2025
In a 2023 post, I cataloged four ways to fight synthetic identity fraud:
Private databases.
Government documents.
Government databases.
A “who you are” test with facial recognition and liveness detection (presentation attack detection).
Ideally an identity verification solution should use multiple methods, and not just one. It doesn’t do you any good to forge a driver’s license if AAMVA doesn’t know about the license in any state or provincial database.
If you create your own test data, you’re more likely to pass the test. So what data was used for Amazon One palm/vein identity scanning accuracy testing?
But NIST has never conducted regular testing of palm identification in general, or palm/vein identity scanning in particular. Not for Amazon. Not for Fujitsu. Not for Imprivata. Not for Ingenico. Not for Pearson. Not for anybody.
“Amazon One is 100 times more accurate than scanning two irises. It raises the bar for biometric identification by combining palm and vein imagery, and after millions of interactions among hundreds of thousands of enrolled identities, we have not had a single false positive.”
“The company claims it is 99.999 percent accurate but does not offer information supporting that statistic.”
And so far I haven’t found any either.
Since the company trains its algorithm on synthetically generated palms, I would like to make sure the company performs its palm/vein identity scanning accuracy testing on REAL palms. If you actually CREATE the data for any test, including an accuracy test, there’s a higher likelihood that you will pass.
I think many people would like to see public substantiated Amazon One accuracy data. ZERO false positives is a…BOLD claim to make.
And of course I referenced VeriDas in my February 7 post when it defined the difference between presentation attack detection and injection attack detection.
Biometric Update played up this difference:
To stay ahead of the curve, Spanish biometrics company Veridas has introduced an advanced injection attack detection capability into its system, to combat the growing threat of synthetic identities and deepfakes….
Veridas says that standard fraud detection only focuses on what it sees or hears – for example, face or voice biometrics. So-called Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) looks for fake images, videos and voices. Deepfake detection searches for the telltale artifacts that give away the work of generative AI.
Neither are monitoring where the feed comes from or whether the device is compromised.
I can revisit the arguments about whether you should get PAD and…IAD?…from the same vendor, or whether you should get best in-class solutions to address each issue separately.
Checking the purported identity against private databases, such as credit records.
Checking the person’s driver’s license or other government document to ensure it’s real and not a fake.
Checking the purported identity against government databases, such as driver’s license databases. (What if the person presents a real driver’s license, but that license was subsequently revoked?)
Perform a “who you are” biometric test against the purported identity.
If you conduct all four tests, then you have used multiple factors of authentication to confirm that the person is who they say they are. If the identity is synthetic, chances are the purported person will fail at least one of these tests.
Do you fight synthetic identity fraud?
If you fight synthetic identity fraud, you should let people know about your solution.
Let’s say that your identity/biometric firm has decided that silence ISN’T golden, and that perhaps your firm needs to talk about its products and services.
So you turn to your favorite generative AI tool to write something that will represent your company in front of everyone. What could go wrong?
Battling synthetic identities requires a multi-pronged approach. Layering advanced technology is key: robust identity verification using government-issued IDs and biometrics to confirm a person’s existence, data enrichment and validation from diverse sources to check for inconsistencies, and machine learning algorithms to identify suspicious patterns and red flags. Collaboration is crucial too, from financial institutions sharing watchlists to governments strengthening regulations and consumers practicing good cyber hygiene. Ultimately, vigilance and a layered defense are the best weapons against these ever-evolving digital phantoms.
From Google Bard.
Great. You’re done, and you saved a lot of money by NOT hiring an identity blog writing expert. The text makes a lot of important points, so I’m sure that your prospects will be inspired by it.
Bot-speak is not an optimal communication strategy either. Generated at craiyon.com.
Well…
…until your prospects ask what YOU do and how you are better than every other identity firm out there. If you’re the same as all the other “me too” solutions, then your prospects will just go with the lowest price provider.
So how do you go about intelligently writing about biometrics?
Intelligently writing about biometrics doesn’t only require some critical words such as “validation.”
Intelligently writing about biometrics doesn’t only require that you KNOW what those words mean, and that you’re conversant in basic biometric topics. (If you want to know five topics a biometric content marketing expert needs to understand, read my post on that subject.)
Intelligently writing about biometrics requires that you put all of this information together AND effectively communicate your message…
…including why your identity/biometrics firm is great and why all the other identity/biometric firms are NOT great.
If you’re doing this on your own, be sure to ask yourself a lot of questions so that you get started on the right track.
If you’re asking Bredemarket to help you create your identity/biometric content by intelligently writing about biometrics, I’ll take care of the questions.
Oh, and one more thing: if you noted my use of the word “no siree” earlier in this post, it was taken from the Talking Heads song “The Big Country.” Here’s an independent video of that song, especially recommended for people outside of North America who may not realize that the United States and Canada are…well, big countries.
My belief that everything on the Internet is true has been irrevocably shattered, all because of what an entertainment executive ordered in his spare time. But the Casey Bloys / “Kelly Shepherd” story is just a tiny bit of what is going on with synthetic identities. And X isn’t the only platform plagued by them, as my LinkedIn experience attests.
By the way, this blog post contains pictures of a lot of people. Casey Bloys is real. Some of the others, not so much.
Casey Bloys is the Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content. Bloys had to start a recent 2024 schedule presentation with an apology, according to Variety. After explaining how passionate he is about his programming, he went back in time a couple of years to a period that we all remember.
So when you think of that mindset, and then think of 2020 and 2021, I’m home, working from home and spending an unhealthy amount of scrolling through Twitter. And I come up with a very, very dumb idea to vent my frustration.
So why did Bloys have to apologize on Thursday? Because of an article that Rolling Stone published on Wednesday. The article led off with this juicy showbiz tidbit about Bloys’ idea for responding to a critic.
“Maybe a Twitter user should tweet that that’s a pretty blithe response to what soldiers legitimately go through on [the] battlefield,” he texted. “Do you have a secret handle? Couldn’t we say especially given that it’s D-Day to dismiss a soldier’s experience like that seems pretty disrespectful … this must be answered!”
(A note to my younger readers: Twitter used to be a popular social media service that no longer exists. It was replaced by X.)
Eventually Bloys found someone to create the “secret handle.” Sully Temori is now alleging wrongful termination by HBO (which is why we’re learning about these juicy tidbits, via court filings). But in 2021 he was an executive assistant who wanted to get ahead by pleasing his bosses.
Ms. Shepherd seems like a nice woman. A mom, a Texan, a herbalist and aromatherapist, and a vegan. (The cows love that last part.)
Most critically, Shepherd is a normal person, not one of those Hollywood showbiz folks. Although Shepherd, who never posted anything on her own, seems to have a distinct motivation to respond to critics of HBO shows. Take her first reply to a critic from (checks notes) Rolling Stone. (Two years later, Rolling Stone would gleefully report on this story. Watch out who you anger.)
Kelly’s other three replies were along the same lines.
All were short one-sentence blurbs.
Most were completely in lower case, because that’s how regular non-Hollywood folk tweet.
All were critical of those who were critical of HBO, accusing them of “shitting on a show about women,” getting their “panties in a bunch,” and being “busy virtue signaling.”
Hey, if I couldn’t eat hamburgers and my home was filled with weird herbs and aromas, I’d be a little mad too.
And then, a little over a week later, it was over, and Kelly Shepherd never tweeted again. Although Temori apparently performed other activities against HBO critics via other methods. Well, until he was terminated.
Did Kelly Shepherd open a LinkedIn account?
But as part of the plan to satisfy Casey Bloys’ angry whims, Kelly Shepherd acquired a social media account, which she could use as a possible proof of identity.
Even though we now know she doesn’t exist.
But X isn’t the only platform plagued with synthetic identities, and some synthetic identities can do much more than anger an entertainment reviewer.
Many of us on LinkedIn are regularly receiving InMails and connection requests (in my case, from profiles with pictures of beautiful women) who say that we are constantly recommended by LinkedIn, who tell us how impressive our profiles are, and who want to contact us outside of the LinkedIn platform via text message or WhatsApp.
Now perhaps some of these messages are from real people, but I seriously doubt that so many of the employees at John Q Wine & Liquor Winery in New York happen to have the last name “Walter.” And the exact same job title.
Ms. Walter is a pretty busy freelance general manager / director / content partnerships manager.
As for her colleague Ms. Alice Walter, she has more experience (having started in 2018) but also has an extensive biography that begins:
The United States is a country with innovative challenges, and there is more room for development in the wine industry at John Q Wine & Liquor Winery. I am motivated and love to learn, and like to be exposed to more different cultures, and hope to develop more careers in my future life.
And you can check out Maria Walter’s profile if you’re so inclined. Or at least check out “her” picture.
Now none of the Walters women tried to contact me, but another “employee” (or maybe it was a “freelancer,” I forget) of this company tried to do so, which led my curious nature to discover yet another hive of fake LinkedIn profiles.
Sadly, one person from this company is a second-degree connection, which means that one of my connections accepted “her” connection request.
Synthetic identities are harmless…right?
Who knows what Karina, Alice, and Maria will do with their LinkedIn profiles?
Will they connect with other professionals?
Will they ask said professionals to move the conversation to SMS or WhatsApp, for whatever reason?
Will they apply for new jobs, using their impressive work history? A 98.8% customer satisfaction rate while managing 1,800 sub-partnerships is remarkable.
Will they apply for bank accounts…or loans?
The fraud possibilities from fake LinkedIn accounts are endless, and could be very costly for any company who falls for a fake synthetic identity. In fact, FiVerity reports that “in 2020, an estimated $20 billion was lost to SIF” (synthetic identity fraud). Which means that LinkedIn account holders and Partnerships Managers Karina, Alice, and Maria Walter could make a LOT of money.
Now banks and other financial institutions have safeguards to verify financial identities of people who open accounts and apply for loans, because fraud reduction is critically important to financial institutions.
Social media companies? Identity is only “important” to them.
They don’t even care about uniqueness (as Worldcoin does), evidenced by the fact that I have more than two X accounts (but none in which I portray a female Texas mom and vegan).
So if someone comes up to you on X or LinkedIn, remember that all may not be as it seems.
But are computerized systems any better, and can they detect spoofed voices?
Well, in the same way that fingerprint readers worked to overcome gummy bears, voice readers are working to overcome deepfake voices.
This is only the beginning of the war against voice spoofing. Other companies will pioneer new advances that will tell the real voices from the fake ones.
As for independent testing:
ID R&D has participated in multiple ASVspoof tests, and performed well in them.
Ignoring your prospects is NOT a winning business strategy. But a lot of companies do it anyway by not communicating regularly with their prospects.
If you ignore your prospects, your prospects will ignore you.
Meetings and money, via a third party
Of my three Bredemarket meetings (so far) today, the second was the most promising.
A person at a large company needs consulting services from me. All we need to do is work out the mechanics. The large company relies on a third party to manage its indpendent contractor relationships, including onboarding, time cards, and payments for hourly work. I wanted to learn about the third party, but I ran into walls when seeking current information about the firm.
The third party’s website is static
The third party’s website talks about its services, some unique aspects about the business, the story of its founder (a fascinating story), its technology partners, and its call to action. It provides ALMOST everything…with the exception of CURRENT information.
Luckily for me, I knew where to find current information on the company. Since the company is a B2B provider, I assumed that the company has a LinkedIn page. And I was right. But…
The third party’s LinkedIn page is also static
As you probably know, company LinkedIn pages have several subpages. The “About” supage talks about the third party company’s services, and the “People” subpage links to the profiles of the company’s employees, including the founder. So I went to the “Posts” subpage for the third party…
Use other social media outlets: TikTok, X, YouTube, whatever.
Pay attention to your prospects by providing current content.
If you ignore your prospects, your prospects will ignore you.
Are you ready to stop ignoring your prospects?
If you need help creating content for your blog, your social media platforms, or your website, Bredemarket can help you regain credibility with your prospects and customers.
Authorize Bredemarket, Ontario California’s content marketing expert, to help your firm produce words that return results.
Does your firm fight crooks who try to fraudulently use synthetic identities? If so, how do you communicate your solution?
This post explains what synthetic identities are (with examples), tells four ways to detect synthetic identities, and closes by providing an answer to the communication question.
While this post is primarily intended for identity firms who can use Bredemarket’s marketing and writing services, anyone else who is interested in synthetic identities can read along.
What are synthetic identities?
To explain what synthetic identities are, let me start by telling you about Jason Brown.
Jason Brown wasn’t Jason Brown
You may not have heard of him unless you lived in Atlanta, Georgia in 2019 and lived near the apartment he rented.
Jason Brown’s renting of an apartment isn’t all that unusual.
If you were to visit Brown’s apartment in February 2019, you would find credit cards and financial information for Adam M. Lopez and Carlos Rivera.
Now that’s a little unusual, especially since Lopez and Rivera never existed.
For that matter, Jason Brown never existed either.
A Georgia man was sentenced Sept. 1 (2022) to more than seven years in federal prison for participating in a nationwide fraud ring that used stolen social security numbers, including those belonging to children, to create synthetic identities used to open lines of credit, create shell companies, and steal nearly $2 million from financial institutions….
Cato joined conspiracies to defraud banks and illegally possess credit cards. Cato and his co-conspirators created “synthetic identities” by combining false personal information such as fake names and dates of birth with the information of real people, such as their social security numbers. Cato and others then used the synthetic identities and fake ID documents to open bank and credit card accounts at financial institutions. Cato and his co-conspirators used the unlawfully obtained credit cards to fund their lifestyles.
Talking about synthetic identity at Victoria Gardens
Here’s a video that I created on Saturday that describes, at a very high level, how synthetic identities can be used fraudulently. People who live near Rancho Cucamonga, California will recognize the Victoria Gardens shopping center, proof that synthetic identity theft can occur far away from Georgia.
Note that synthetic identity theft different from stealing someone else’s existing identity. In this case, a new identity is created.
So how do you catch these fraudsters?
Catching the identity synthesizers
If you’re renting out an apartment, and Jason Brown shows you his driver’s license and provides his Social Security Number, how can you detect if Brown is a crook? There are four methods to verify that Jason Brown exists, and that he’s the person renting your apartment.
Method One: Private Databases
One way to check Jason Brown’s story is to perform credit checks and other data investigations using financial databases.
Did Jason Brown just spring into existence within the past year, with no earlier credit record? That seems suspicious.
Does Jason Brown’s credit record appear TOO clean? That seems suspicious.
Does Jason Brown share information such as a common social security number with other people? Are any of those other identities also fraudulent? That is DEFINITELY suspicious.
This is one way that many firms detect synthetic identities, and for some firms it is the ONLY way they detect synthetic identities. And these firms have to tell their story to their prospects.
If your firm offers a tool to verify identities via private databases, how do you let your prospects know the benefits of your tool, and why your solution is better than all other solutions?
Method Two: Check That Driver’s License (or other government document)
What about that driver’s license that Brown presented? There are a wide variety of software tools that can check the authenticity of driver’s licenses, passports, and other government-issued documents. Some of these tools existed back in 2019 when “Brown” was renting his apartment, and a number of them exist today.
Maybe your firm has created such a tool, or uses a tool from a third party.
If your firm offers this capability, how can your prospects learn about its benefits, and why your solution excels?
Method Three: Check Government Databases
Checking the authenticity of a government-issued document may not be enough, since the document itself may be legitimate, but the implied credentials may no longer be legitimate. For example, if my California driver’s license expires in 2025, but I move to Minnesota in 2023 and get a new license, my California driver’s license is no longer valid, even though I have it in my possession.
Why not check the database of the Department of Motor Vehicles (or the equivalent in your state) to see if there is still an active driver’s license for that person?
The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) maintains a Driver’s License Data Verification (DLDV) Service in which participating jurisdictions allow other entities to verify the license data for individuals. Your firm may be able to access the DLDV data for selected jurisdictions, providing an extra identity verification tool.
If your firm offers this capability, how can your prospects learn where it is available, what its benefits are, and why it is an important part of your solution?
Method Four: Conduct the “Who You Are” Test
There is one more way to confirm that a person is real, and that is to check the person. Literally.
If someone on a smartphone or videoconference says that they are Jason Brown, how do you know that it’s the real Jason Brown and not Jim Smith, or a previous recording or simulation of Jason Brown?
This is where tools such as facial recognition and liveness detection come to play.
You can ensure that the live face matches any face on record.
You can also confirm that the face is truly a live face.
In addition to these two tests, you can compare the face against the face on the presented driver’s license or passport to offer additional confirmation of true identity.
Now some companies offer facial recognition, others offer liveness detection, others match the live face to a face on a government ID, and many companies offer two or three of these capabilities.
One more time: if your firm offers these capabilities—either your own or someone else’s—what are the benefits of your algorithms? (For example, are they more accurate than competing algorithms? And under what conditions?) And why is your solution better than the others?
This is for the firms who fight synthetic identities
While most of this post is of general interest to anyone dealing with synthetic identities, this part of this post is specifically addressed to identity and biometric firms who provide synthetic identity-fighting solutions.
When you communicate about your solutions, your communicator needs to have certain types of experience.
Industry experience. Perhaps you sell your identity solution to financial institutions, or educational institutions , or a host of other industries (gambling/gaming, healthcare, hospitality, retailers, or sport/concert venues, or others). You need someone with this industry experience.
Solution experience. Perhaps your communications require someone with 29 years of experience in identity, biometrics, and technology marketing, including experience with all five factors of authentication (and verification).
Communication experience. Perhaps you need to effectively communicate with your prospects in a customer focused, benefits-oriented way. (Content that is all about you and your features won’t win business.)
If you haven’t read a Bredemarket blog post before, or even if you have, you may not realize that this post is jam-packed with additional information well beyond the post itself. This post alone links to the following Bredemarket posts and other content. You may want to follow one or more of the 13 links below if you need additional information on a particular topic:
Here’s my latest brochure for the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service, my standard package to create your 400 to 600 word blog posts and LinkedIn articles. Be sure to check the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service page for updates.
Bredemarket 