Online payments fraud isn’t going to stop growing any time soon, and eCommerce merchants are doing their best to fight it. Synthetic fraud is the new way to purchase stolen goods. Let’s discover more on this topic and see who can help you with CutPay merchant services.
CutPay Merchant Services & Synthetic Identity (ID) Fraud
On the dark web marketplaces, it’s now quite common to find cybercriminals offering carding tutorials. UK-based artificial intelligence firm FeatureSpace describes synthetic identity (ID) fraud as a type of fraud that’s among the latest criminal activities related to finances. It’s not only new: it’s also the most rapidly growing and most advanced.
Synthetic ID thieves combine real and fake personal-consumer data. Then, they create a new identity based on Social Security numbers, names, addresses, and birthdays. These new identities are being sold on the dark web.
In the UK, fraud is on the rise, and fraudsters find new methods to get what they need. In fact, identity theft is a quite lucrative business for criminals. In the UK, identity fraud has grown fastest for victims aged 60+ and under 21.
The national fraud-prevention service Cifas registered 189.108 cases in 2018, which included 82.608 plastic card-fraud cases. Have you all the necessary fraud-prevention techniques in place? If not, no need to worry. Just work with a reliable and experienced merchant-services comparison company in the UK.
A true payment expert in the UK can help you compare merchant services to find the best solution to combat fraud and reduce chargebacks. No matter you’re interested in CutPay merchant services or in any other payment-processing company, with a reputable comparison company, you can enjoy the best deal for your business.
More on Synthetic Identity Theft
Synthetic identity theft has to do with those cases when criminals get access to data from a variety of sources with the purpose of creating a new identity that can help them obtain loans, buy goods/ or acquire credit cards.
Often synthetic-identity thieves put together real and fake data to create a new fictional person. Specifically, they may use your Social Security number and put it together with someone else’s name, address, and phone number.
In fact, because of synthetic identity fraud, banks lose billions of dollars and countless hours as they get down to looking for someone who doesn’t exist. This is one of the reasons why card losses worldwide have recently been growing at an average-annual rate of 18%, as Accenture reports.
In the UK, as of August 18, 2018, 790 data breaches were registered with over 27 million records exposed. So, who are the most common victims of synthetic identity fraud?
- Youngsters (at the highest risk)
- Seniors are also under target
- Children are increasingly becoming a major target
- Those with high income
- Those who don’t have strong passwords
To sum up, synthetic identity theft or fraud isn’t only on the rise but it’s also a complicated threat because it isn’t easy to detect and fix. Synthetic identity theft is associated with those cases when thieves get access to data via a breach, hack or by purchasing it on the dark web.
Payment industry expert Taylor Cole is a passionate merchant account expert who understands the complicated world of accepting credit and debit cards at your business. His understanding of the industry, including CutPay merchant services, has helped thousands of business owners save money and time.