This case study addresses synthetic identity fraud and how to minimize losses in card portfolios
Situation
A leading credit card issuer was struggling with rising unrecoverable charges. The firm knew that a portion of card accounts were a result of synthetic identities created via authorized user abuse, but did not have an efficient way to identify them.
Challenge:
How to minimize losses due to synthetic identity accounts
Solution
FraudIQ® Synthetic ID Alerts enabled the credit issuer to efficiently identify card accounts likely to be a result of authorized user abuse.
With FraudIQ Synthetic ID Alerts, the credit issuer could:
- Pinpoint card accounts that were likely opened using synthetic identities, in which fraudsters had piggybacked good consumers’ credit
- Protect against fraud write-off charges resulting from lack of payment on card balance or interest charges from synthetic identity accounts
- Leverage Equifax AI-driven machine-learning algorithms using multiple data sources to detect synthetic ID behavior and patterns
Outcome
FraudIQ Synthetic ID Alerts identified $25M+ in potential losses from over 100,000 new synthetic accounts.
A portfolio analysis which appended FraudIQ Synthetic ID Alerts to the credit issuers’ card portfolio revealed:
- Over 100,000 synthetic identity accounts identified during account origination could result in over $25 million in potential charge-offs in just one year
- Over 62,000 synthetic identity accounts in its existing portfolio could result in over $8 million in potential losses in just one year
- After seeing the results of the analysis, the credit issuer instituted a one-time scrub of its card portfolio as well as ongoing monitoring during account origination, helping it to protect against millions in fraud write-off charges
Results may vary based on actual data and situation.
Learn more about Equifax solutions for identity and fraud, or read more about FraudIQ Synthetic ID Alerts.
