Fergie's Tech Blog

'Synthetic ID Fraud' -- How Widespread Is It?

In a rather fascinating story, Bob Sullivan writes on The Red Tape Chronicles:

SSN-only ID theft -- also called synthetic ID fraud -- is often undetectable because of the way credit bureaus store data and release it to consumers. Free credit reports ordered by consumers don’t reveal all credit history entries connected to a Social Security number. Only entries that precisely match a consumer's name, Social Security number and other personal information appear on such reports. Accounts opened using the consumer's number but a different name are often omitted, according to the bureaus. That means SSN-only theft, like Harrison’s, can be almost impossible to detect.

It’s also impossible to say how common such theft is; the only agencies that would know –- the credit bureaus and the Social Security Administration -- aren’t talking. But an investigation by MSNBC.com last year revealed that millions of workers pay taxes using the wrong Social Security number every year, hinting that the problem may be much wider than generally believed.

posted by Fergie @ 2/06/2006 01:00:00 PM