Synthetic identity fraud is not always based on stealing and using one real person’s complete identity. Fraudsters may combine genuine personal information with fabricated names, addresses, contact details, portraits, or documents to create an artificial customer profile.

Initial identity verification establishes the first trusted relationship between a person, their identity evidence, and a new account. Reverification occurs later, when a digital platform needs to confirm that the current user still corresponds to that trusted identity.

Standard Know Your Customer checks help businesses identify customers, verify identity evidence, understand the relationship, and perform required screening. However, some customers, transactions, ownership structures, and geographic connections create risks that cannot be addressed through routine checks alone.

Account recovery is designed for legitimate users who lose access to a password, email address, phone number, trusted device, or authentication method. Unfortunately, the same flexibility can give attackers an alternative route into a protected account.

Proof of address helps a business determine whether a customer is connected to the residential or business address they have declared. It may support customer due diligence, account opening, fraud prevention, eligibility checks, and regulatory compliance.

Money laundering red flags are behaviors, relationships, or transaction patterns that may indicate financial activity requires further investigation. They are not proof of criminal conduct, and many have legitimate explanations.

Identity fraud does not end when a customer passes onboarding. Criminals may create an account with stolen evidence, take control of a legitimate account later, manipulate profile information, or exploit recovery procedures after trust has already been established.

A failed document-verification result does not always mean that a customer submitted a fraudulent identity document. Verification can fail because the image is unclear, the document type is unsupported, data cannot be validated, the document appears manipulated, or the person presenting it cannot be reliably linked to the stated identity.

Identity verification confirms who a customer is, while sanctions and PEP screening compare that identity against structured compliance lists. However, significant customer risk may appear first in news reports, regulatory announcements, court records, or other public information.

Remote identity verification traditionally assumes that the face captured during onboarding, login, or account recovery belongs to a real person using a genuine camera. Deepfake technology challenges that assumption by enabling attackers to synthesize faces, manipulate facial movement, and inject artificial media into verification workflows.

Verifying a customer’s identity does not establish whether a business is legally permitted to transact with that person or organization. Sanctions screening addresses this separate question by comparing customers and related parties against applicable sanctions data.

Online platforms may need to determine whether a user is old enough to access specific content, create an account, purchase regulated products, or use certain features.

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Politically exposed person screening, commonly called PEP screening, helps organizations identify customers and beneficial owners who hold—or have held—prominent public functions.

Synthetic identity fraud occurs when criminals construct an identity that does not accurately represent a real person. The identity may combine stolen information with fabricated attributes, or it may be entirely fictional.