Exposing fraud behavior patterns associated with compromised identities

Timeliness of detection and diversity of data sources are critical factors in countering attempts to compromise consumer identities, according to ID:A Labs.

Understanding fraud mobility, the pattern of how a fraudster uses an identity within and across industries, is one of the greatest challenges to fraud prevention and detection.

A new study from ID:A Labs tracked behavioral trends for both fraud victims, and non-compromised consumers based on an analysis of 68 million Social Security numbers of both victims and non-victims over the last five years.

By studying the velocity of fraud activity for both compromised and non-compromised identities, researchers observed that much like a stolen credit card, fraudsters exploit identities rapidly across multiple enterprises to monetize the identity before the consumer and businesses become aware of the compromise.

Attempts to use the compromised identity were observed to be up to 7.5 times higher than for non-compromised identities in a very short period of time, with most of the application velocity occurring within a 24 to 48 hour period.

Additionally, the compromised identities initially tend to appear at multiple businesses within the same industry, but over a longer period these identities are seen moving industries, likely in an attempt to defeat traditional fraud detection tools.

Findings indicate that a compromised identity remains at increased risk, long after the initial fraud. Criminals will assert previously compromised identities at a rate 3.4 times higher than their non-compromised peers.