The Trump administration’s crusade against purported systemic fraud against liberals has largely looked like a racist project.
To promote such claims, the White House has relied in part on activists like Nick Shirley, who has targeted Somali Americans with unproven allegations of fraud and promoted a blatantly antisemitic video about a “Jewish invasion” in New Jersey. Trump, a man found liable for fraud in civil court and convicted of fraudulent activity in criminal court, has himself gone on repeated racist rants about Somali immigrants engaging in fraud. And his administration has launched a bogus fraud indictment against the anti-racist Southern Poverty Law Center, charges that some conservatives are using to downplay the existence of racist extremism.
Amid all of this, Arizona Republicans are dealing with a scandal over a massive school voucher initiative they backed, with…
Identity theft is the “foundational” fraud upon which many other crimes are built. It involves the unauthorized acquisition and use of a person’s personal identifying information (PII), such as an ID number, Social Security number, or passport details.
- How it works: Fraudsters obtain PII through data breaches, mail theft, or “social engineering” (tricking people into revealing details). Once they have this data, they can open new bank accounts, apply for credit cards or loans, and even receive medical treatment under your name.
- Synthetic Identity Fraud: A sophisticated variation where criminals combine real and fabricated information to create a completely new, “synthetic” person. This is particularly difficult to detect because there is no single victim to report the suspicious activity initially.