Unseen Money 16—synthetic identity fraud

Unseen Money 16—synthetic identity fraud

From New Money Review podcast by Paul Amery

January 26, 2026 · 33 min

About this episode

The episode explores a real-life case of synthetic identity fraud involving a spoofed eBay delivery and discusses the implications of this growing crime.

In the latest episode of Unseen Money, Timur Yunusov helps Paul Amery unravel a strange real-life story involving a spoofed eBay delivery, Paul’s phone number and a photo of an Indian lady in a pink dressing gown. The story is part of a rapidly growing form of crime involving so-called “synthetic” identities. In a synthetic identity fraud, criminals create fake online identities by blending real, stolen data with fabricated information. They then use those identities to conduct money laundering and fraud. In the podcast, we cover: (00’ 25”) How Paul got a DPD delivery notification for an eBay parcel he hadn't ordered (1’ 20”) How DPD provided “proof of delivery” to a woman in a pink dressing gown (2’ 45”) How eBay showed no interest in investigating the transaction (3’ 15”) Why a synthetic identity combines real and fictitious information (4’ 40”) How criminals use synthetic identities to decrease online friction (6’ 40”) Possible use of synthetic IDs in buy now pay later (BNPL) fraud (7’ 10”) Why synthetic identity frauds don’t fit the standard stolen identity playbook (7’ 40”) Why synthetic ID cases deserve much greater scrutiny from anti-fraud teams (11’ 30”) Identity theft…

People in this episode

Host: Paul Amery

Guest: Timur Yunusov

Topics covered

  • synthetic identity fraud
  • online crime
  • money laundering
  • eBay
  • DPD
  • buy now pay later

Keywords

  • fraud
  • identity theft
  • online security

Mentioned in this episode

Products: eBay, DPD

Books & works: Unseen Money

Places: Russia, Ukraine

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