Dealers, Customers Pay High Price for Fake IDs
Experts tell the Detroit Free Press’s Jamie L. LaReau that identity fraud, including but not limited to the use of synthetic IDs, is on the rise at dealerships in Michigan and beyond.
Dealers lose the money they would have made on the sale as well as legal fees and their deductible, possibly followed by an insurance rate hike. Worse yet, they must subject all customers to additional identify verification steps in an attempt to stop the next fraudster.
The cost to the auto industry is in the billions, according to Point Predictive’s chief fraud strategist, Frank McKenna.
“All fraud typically gets passed on to the end consumer because it’s part of an expense line for a company,” McKenna told LaReau. “If they lose $150,000 a year in fraud, they have to recoup those costs somehow, and eventually it gets borne by the consumer.”
