When an application for credit involves a name, date of birth (DOB), and Social Security number (SSN) that do not belong to the same person, or that are completely false and have been assembled to create a fictitious identity, synthetic identity fraud is being attempted. When the name and date of birth match those of a real person, but the Social Security number belongs to another person or is made up, the applicant is attempting fraud in their own name. That is first-party synthetic fraud. When the name, DOB, and SSN are completely false, third-party synthetic fraud is being attempted. Fir...