Credit Cards are the leading target for repeat fraud

Research by Synectics Solutions has revealed that 23% of individuals who commit credit card-related fraud go on to offend again, the highest repeat-offending rate of any major financial product. This figure has grown from 17% to 23% in just five years, representing a 35% increase.

Repeat offenders are also spreading their activity across multiple organisations, targeting 50% more institutions than they did five years ago, with a 10% uplift in the past year alone.

Based on analysis of National SIRA data – the UK’s largest shared intelligence consortium covering confirmed fraud, suspicious activity, and genuine customers – these insights underline an urgent need for cross-organisation data sharing to detect and disrupt offenders before they transition between institutions.

Chris Lewis, Director, Strategic Solutions & Analytics at Synectics, said “This data is clearly a concern. The challenge banks and credit providers face is compounded by the fact that repeat offenders aren’t exactly fans of brand loyalty. They are now hitting 50% more financial institutions than they were five years ago – a 10% rise since last year alone. It’s a stark reminder of how essential shared intelligence has become in stopping career fraudsters. Across products and across institutions.”

The most common offence among repeat fraudsters is False Identity, driven heavily by the rise of synthetic and partially synthetic IDs. 50% of all false identity filings are linked to individuals who have submitted at least one other false identity. Synectics also notes a rise in one specific subcategory of ID fraud – ‘fractional deviation fraud’. This is a process whereby genuine identities are hijacked by altering small details, often using information taken from public sources such as Companies House.

Lewis continued “When 50% of all false identity filings are tied to an individual with a history of creating multiple fake IDs, this is no longer just a case of ‘one-off’ application fraud – it’s a sign of organised, repeatable schemes designed to evade detection. Combine this with the fact that synthetic identities are quickly becoming the dominant vehicle for fraud, and it’s clear that traditional, siloed checks are not enough.
 
“Fraud strategy needs to evolve. Onboarding checks will always be crucial, with conditional friction particularly advisable where IDs are at high risk of hijacking, but our data shows there is a clear need to supplement this with dynamic identity verification throughout the customer lifecycle. Without this, for example, spotting the point at which a ‘good ID turns bad’ becomes extremely difficult.”

Synectics’ findings highlight the pressure facing banks, lenders, and financial institutions as fraudsters become more mobile, more organised, and more adept at exploiting weaknesses in siloed systems.

Lewis concluded “Most importantly, we must tap into cross-institution intelligence and data sharing. Only by pooling information can we uncover the hidden links and patterns of synthetic ID fraud that no single institution can detect alone.”