An entirely fabricated identity mixing real and invented data, whose fraud stays long invisible for want of a victim to report it.
Synthetic identity fraud does not usurp an existing person's identity, it fabricates a person who never existed, endowed with a coherent face, voice and documents. Its most formidable property is the absence of a victim, for no real individual observes the diversion and can report it, so losses grow silently, estimated at twenty to forty billion dollars a year worldwide. For insurance it is an ontological rupture, since the whole mechanics of pooling assume that behind each policy stands a real, identifiable and accountable person. The synthetic person introduces ghost subjects into the portfolio that nothing attaches to the real.
A subject that does not exist can take out a policy, file a claim and collect an indemnity while remaining pure fiction.
synthetic identity, personne synthétique, fraude par identité synthétique