Synthetic fraud is the use of fictitious identities—often combining real and fake information—to open accounts and commit financial crimes. SentiLink defines two types: first-party, where individuals alter their own details like SSNs, and third-party, where completely fake profiles are created. Tactics include piggybacking on tradelines, credit washing, and fake documentation. These cases are often hard to detect and can be confused with identity theft or credit risk. SentiLink proposes standardized definitions to help institutions and regulators better detect and prevent this growing threat.

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