Fraud Management & Cybercrime , ID Fraud

Synthetic ID Fraud: How a Toolkit Will Help Banks

In February, the Federal Reserve came out with a toolkit to detect synthetic ID fraud. Mike Timoney, vice president, secure payments at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, says enterprises want to know how to deal with this kind of fraud and were anxious to get the information.

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Timoney says enterprises repeatedly told the bank that the information on synthetic ID fraud needed to be in one place. So, to make it easy to find and consumable, the bank created a toolkit.

One of the challenges with fighting this type of fraud is that not many enterprises are familiar with it, he says. "There are multiple enterprises who do not necessarily believe that synthetic fraud is actually happening," according to Timoney.

In a video interview with Information Security Media Group, Timoney also discusses:

• How synthetic ID fraud has evolved over the years;
• The challenges of dealing with synthetic ID fraud;
• How the toolkit will help.

As vice president, secure payments, at Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Timoney is responsible for designing, developing and implementing key elements of the Federal Reserve’s strategy to advance payments security, which currently focuses on improving fraud. He joined the Federal Reserve after spending 25 years in financial services, treasury management, fraud prevention and mitigation, including a role as head of global card and comprehensive payables fraud for Bank of America.