Despite consumer’s growing reliance on online marketplaces (especially during social distancing) many still don’t have an adequate level of assurance for verifying customers (e.g. many only require an email, username and password).

Meanwhile, other online marketplaces leverage hundreds of different behavioral biometrics and knowledge-based parameters for verifying customers. But the disadvantage there is that the additional security layers slow down the verification process, which can lead to lost customers (especially younger generations). Another largely unknown fraud technique that’s a particularly significant, common threat amid the COVID-19 outbreak involves using SSNs stolen from recently-deceased individuals and public or breached information to create synthetic identities (and even synthetic families with a spouse and kids).

Cybercriminals then establish creditability for those synthetic identities using a variety of tactics, such as making online transactions and leaving a digital trail of breadcrumbs – allowing them to eventually load up on loans and credit, spend it all and vanish. Sanjay can discuss this growing threat, how identity theft is changing during the pandemic, and how businesses and consumers can help prevent it.

Sanjay Gupta from Mitek discusses how online marketplaces are leveraging biometrics in customer onboarding and how they can balance security with usability. We also talk about how cybercriminals are capitalizing on the recently-deceased and creating synthetic identities and synthetic families.