This document discusses the growing problem of synthetic identity fraud, which costs American businesses $50 billion per year. It outlines how synthetic identities are created using combinations of real and fabricated personal information to establish credit histories. TransUnion has developed a new synthetic fraud model that uses powerful credit metadata to more precisely identify synthetic identities and related fraudulent behaviors that evade traditional fraud detection systems. The model provides a score to identify high-risk synthetic applicants and can help financial institutions address this threat by supplementing existing review processes.