Impersonating and using the credentials to inflict a negative image of an individual is a heinous crime. Fraudsters generally carry out this illicit crime to perform desirable actions such as manipulating a person’s reputation or causing them financial loss. This is not limited to individuals only, businesses can also become victims of synthetic identity fraud. This procedure has not been limited to the physical world but has aggravated into the digital world at an alarming rate. Hackers can be seen exploiting the loopholes in online transaction services to provide collateral damage to the company. Businesses are finding solutions while implementing reliable identity verification services to mitigate fraudsters and keep them away from the reach of the company.
Tactics Used By Crooks in Committing Identity Thefts
Hacking an account is a technique used by crooks to perform identity theft. Although there are many ways through which thefts can invade an account, they serve the same purpose of stealing personal information to make illegal purchases under the name of someone else. Although advancements are being made to fill in the loopholes in the technology but on the other hand, fraudsters are devising new ways through which they can impersonate an identity. Different factors affecting the businesses through identity theft are:
- Inserting false information: Fraudsters forged documents by modifying the document to insert desirable information or even can use various templates already been available on the internet to fill in data to use to onboard in different organizations illegally.
- Misusing Credit Cards: Using stolen credit cards or pulling out information about the credit card details of a person lets the fraudsters in misusing the credit card to make illicit purchases. Through that information, a person can buy weapons to use for wrongful purposes under the identity of someone else.
- Friendly Attack: it might happen that someone who might pose as a friend of an individual would turn out to be his enemy. By faking, they can pull out personal details of a person by initiating false communication with them. The user may tell them details about their age, location, financial details, etc. which can, later on, be misused.
Multiple Kinds of Identity Thefts
Identity authentication has become a necessity for companies to digital onboarding secure and reliable customers. Therefore, it is essential to know different types of identity theft to fight them in an allusive way. Some of these kinds are mentioned below:
Synthetic Identity Theft
In this kind of fraud, the scammer will find some relevant original information and piece it together with fake information to form a synthetic identity. It takes a long time to detect this type of fraud and even if they are caught, they leave no trace behind them. In cases of territory restrictions, fraudsters may use these synthetic identities to gain access to these areas by denying themselves as a blacklisted individual. However, distinguishing a person’s intention using synthetic identity can be crucial.
Child Identity Theft
During the crisis of the Covid-19, children were restricted to staying indoors. Games become the only entertainment purpose for them at that time, which ultimately got them addicted to their smartphones. As evident from Shufti Pro News, no child pays attention to their credit card details in fact in most cases minors make purchases using the credit card of their parents attached to their online accounts. Fraudsters can take advantage of this and can lure children to conduct vicious crimes unknown to them.
Medical Identity Theft
Healthcare departments can also get affected due to identity theft. Pharmacists giving free medicines and restricted drugs to individuals without checking their IDs can prove to be dangerous. Thefts can use the stolen prescriptions of someone else to acquire these services therefore it is vital to perform ID verification to differentiate between original and fake patients.
Financial Identity Theft
Deploying bank accounts and using them to target financial statements to carry out illegal activities is a trick used by fraudsters to carry out identity thefts. As data breaches are rising, companies can face a loss of millions of dollars. This data is further sold in the black market, where criminals can use this information for impersonating an identity. As per Shufti Pro Fundings, many companies are receiving global investments to perform identification to combat cases of thefts in banks.
Wrapping it Up
Identity verification services can help companies to fight identity thefts prevailing in recent times. Using forged documents and misusing credit cards to make illicit purchases are common tactics used by fraudsters. In addition, various kinds of identity theft such as medical, financial, and synthetic identity thefts can provide damage to the companies causing them a loss of hundreds of dollars. Therefore, businesses need to adopt proper identity verification measures to restrain fraudsters from reaching out and for ensuring a secure customer onboarding process.
