⚠️ “Government programs are being treated like ATMs by international crime rings.”
According to a recent report, the U.S. is losing $233–$521 billion per year to fraud — much of it driven by foreign actors using identity theft and synthetic identities at massive scale.
Key insights from the article:
🌍 Attackers operating from China, Russia, India, the Philippines, Poland, and South Africa
💥 COVID-era relief programs were a proving ground for large-scale fraud
🤖 AI is helping attackers scale and evade detection
🆔 Most scams leverage real or synthetic PII, easily pulled from data breaches
🔁 Reuse across agencies and private-sector targets is common
These vulnerabilities aren’t hypothetical or historical — they’re active.
We need more than longer forms and security questions. We need real-time intelligence, modern verification, and a national strategy that treats identity as critical infrastructure.
#CyberSecurity #IdentityTheft #FraudPrevention #ThreatIntel #DigitalIdentity
https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/international-crime-rings-defraud-us-govt-billions