Fraud

Deception for financial or access gain.

Fraud covers any scheme in which someone lies or misrepresents the truth to get money, credit, goods, services, or access that they would not otherwise receive.

Intentional misrepresentation to obtain money, credit, goods, services, or access.

Fraud takes many forms, and the glossary groups them by who deceives whom:

• First-party fraud, in which a genuine account holder misrepresents facts for gain.
• Third-party fraud, in which someone uses another person's identity without their knowledge.
• Account takeover, in which a criminal gets into an existing customer's account.
• Synthetic identity fraud, in which a fabricated identity is built from real and invented details.
• Scams, in which a victim is deceived into sending money or information themselves.

Fraud defenses work at several points:

1. At onboarding, identity verification checks who is applying.
2. At login and during sessions, authentication and behavioral signals check who is acting.
3. At transactions, rules and models check whether the activity fits the account.
4. After the fact, monitoring and case management investigate what slipped through.

Fraud sits next to terms that are easy to mix up:

• Identity theft is the stealing of personal information, while identity fraud is the use of it to deceive.
• Scam usually describes fraud in which the victim is tricked into taking the action, while other fraud happens without the victim's involvement.
• Fraud rate measures how much fraud occurs relative to total activity.

For more, see What is Identity Fraud? Definition & Common Questions.