The UK is facing a significant threat from nearly three million “Frankenstein” identities—fraudulent profiles created by criminals using a mix of real and fabricated personal information, according to researchers. This worrying trend could potentially lead to a multi-billion pound impact on the economy.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions has analyzed over 72 million consumer profiles, identifying approximately 2.8 million that exhibit signs of ‘Frankenstein cloning.’ This process involves creating synthetic identities to bypass credit checks and perpetrate high-value fraud against banks and credit providers.
In the United States, where synthetic fraud is already a critical issue, businesses report an average loss of $15,000 for each confirmed case. If the patterns observed in the UK mirror those seen in the US, LexisNexis estimates that the economic cost could reach around £4.2 billion by 2027 unless companies adopt effective screening measures.
The study reveals that scammers are operating across the country, using rural ‘synthetic farms’ and urban ‘synthetic factories’ to artificially inflate the credit scores of new synthetic identities on a large scale, preparing for subsequent fraud attacks.
For instance, a rental property in Chichester was found to have 439 suspicious identities registered over seven years, with only 22 of these linked to actual individuals. These fraudulent identities were involved in numerous credit applications, including short-term loans, and some were connected to a similar operation located hundreds of miles away in Dundee, Scotland.
Noreen Altaf, an identity fraud specialist at LexisNexis, explained that initially, synthetic IDs hold little value for a fraudster as they lack credit history. To circumvent this, criminals invest time in nurturing these false identities, creating what appears to be a legitimate credit profile over time. This method makes the fraud threat largely undetectable by existing defenses until it is too late. Altaf noted, “Once a fraudster believes the synthetic ID has achieved enough credibility, they will attempt to max out available credit lines.”