Identity verification today looks nothing like it did a decade ago.
We have AI-powered OCR, biometric checks, device intelligence, authentication systems, and multiple data sources that can validate a person within seconds.
And yet—identity fraud hasn’t disappeared.
It has simply evolved.
Fraudsters don’t always hack systems.
Most of the time, they exploit the tiny cracks that still exist in onboarding journeys, document checks, and data validations.
In this blog, we’re taking a closer look at seven identity manipulation tricks that are surprisingly common, whether you’re a fintech, marketplace, insurer, lender, employer, or any platform that deals with high-volume onboarding.
This isn’t about fear—
It’s about understanding how these tricks work so organizations can design smarter, safer journeys.
Why Identity Manipulation Still Works
Before jumping into the tricks, it’s important to understand the psychology behind identity fraud.
Most identity manipulation happens because:
- Verification workflows are fragmented
- Manual checks still exist in many industries
- APIs don’t talk to each other
- Some signals aren’t analyzed deeply
- Fraudsters repeatedly test weak flows until they find a loophole
The intent isn’t always criminal.
Sometimes it’s individuals attempting to get around rigid onboarding rules.
But the impact on businesses can be severe—KYC risk, loan defaults, marketplace fraud, rehiring scams, duplicate accounts, and even regulatory penalties.
Let’s break down the seven manipulation techniques that show up more often than people realize.
The 7 Most Common Identity Manipulation Tricks
1. Using a “Clean” Identity Borrowed From Someone Else
The oldest trick in the digital book.
This is called piggyback identity fraud, where a fraudster uses an identity belonging to a relative, friend, colleague, or even a stranger whose documents are easily accessible.
Typical scenarios include:
- Someone with a poor credit history using a friend’s PAN
- Gig workers borrowing someone else’s Aadhaar for onboarding
- Delivery agents sharing a single identity across multiple accounts
- Fraudsters renting IDs from people for a fee
What makes this dangerous is that the person behind the identity doesn’t match the data—yet traditional document checks won’t catch this.
Borrowed identities exploit the gap between who the person is and which documents they present.
2. Manipulating Address Information to Evade Risk Flags
Addresses in India can be surprisingly easy to tweak because:
- Most people have multiple active addresses
- Rental agreements are flexible
- Rural/urban formatting is inconsistent
- Typos or spelling differences are common
Fraudsters exploit this by:
- Changing the spelling of localities
- Using a friend’s address
- Mentioning a previous address to mask relocation
- Switching PIN codes to appear in a low-risk geography
Even small address changes can bypass rule-based fraud systems that aren’t built to understand variations.
The game here is simple:
Appear to belong to a different location to avoid scrutiny.
3. Slightly Altering Names to Create Duplicate Accounts
This is one of the most underrated tricks.
Changing:
- “Agarwal” to “Agrawal”
- “Mohammed” to “Mohammad”
- “Singh” to “S.”
- Swapping first and last names
…can successfully slip past systems that rely purely on exact-match checks.
Platforms that offer incentives—like referral bonuses, coupon-driven marketplaces, or sign-up credits—are often hit with this form of manipulation.
The identity is real,
but the variation is intentional.
Fraudsters know that many verification systems don’t check for “name similarity” or linguistic patterns.
4. Inflating or Hiding Employment Details
Employment-related manipulation shows up everywhere—from staffing platforms to loan applications to B2B gig onboarding.
Common tricks include:
- Claiming past experience that doesn’t exist
- Hiding employment gaps
- Uploading forged experience letters
- Editing salary slips
- Presenting UAN history selectively
People do this to look more credible, get better-paying gigs, or qualify for financial products.
The root problem?
Employment documents in India have no universal validation format, making this one of the easiest targets for manipulation.
5. Using Temporary or Newly Issued Phone Numbers
Phone numbers are quietly one of the biggest identity signals—
but also one of the easiest to exploit.
A freshly activated SIM card often has:
- No activity history
- No location pattern
- No usage signals
Fraudsters know this and frequently use:
- Disposable numbers
- Numbers registered to someone else
- Numbers obtained through SIM swap
- Prepaid connections purchased without scrutiny
Since many platforms use phone numbers as the “primary identity,” this allows a fraudster to build a brand-new digital persona from scratch.
6. Subtle Document Editing Using Free Tools
You don’t need Photoshop to falsify a document anymore.
Free mobile apps can:
- Adjust text
- Replace numbers
- Change photos
- Edit dates
- Remove watermarks
- Create replicas of commonly used forms
These aren’t dramatic edits.
Fraudsters make tiny, almost invisible adjustments:
- Modifying the year of birth
- Changing the spelling of the name
- Updating the address
- Replacing the photo with better clarity
When onboarding volume is high, such edits slip through unless the system validates document data across multiple public or private sources.
7. Masking True Financial Health Through Clever Document Sequencing
This trick is relatively new and is mostly seen in fincrime analysis, lending, and BNPL products.
Fraudsters curate their financial journey:
- Showing only selected bank statements
- Using salary accounts with predictable patterns
- Borrowing short-term funds to inflate account balance
- Quickly cleansing accounts before onboarding
- Using multiple UPI handles to hide real spending behaviour
The idea is not to fake identity on paper—
but fake creditworthiness by sequencing documents cleverly.
Traditional checks rarely catch this because the identity is genuine, but the story the documents tell is fabricated.
Why These Tricks Matter More in 2025
Identity fraud is not about “fake people.”
It’s about real people misrepresenting key details to access systems that protect themselves with trust.
And as India moves deeper into digital-first onboarding, organizations face:
- High onboarding speed expectations
- Lower tolerance for drop-offs
- High fraud attempts using automation and AI
- Massive competition in fintech, lending, gaming, gig work, marketplaces
- A regulatory environment moving towards strict accountability
Identity manipulation doesn’t always look like a high-tech crime.
Sometimes, it’s just one spelling change, one borrowed document, one mismatched address.
But the ripple effect can be huge.
The Road Ahead — Building Resilient Verification Flows
The future isn’t just about adding more checks.
It’s about combining the right signals so that manipulation becomes harder, not easier.
Platforms that use:
- multi-source verification
- behavioural signals
- phone intelligence
- name-frequency models
- address normalization techniques
- employment history mapping
- pattern-based fraud detection
…are far better equipped to catch subtle manipulations without slowing down onboarding.
Identity security today is less about stopping fraudsters—
and more about closing loopholes that make fraud worth attempting in the first place.
The Road Ahead
Identity manipulation isn’t disappearing—it’s evolving alongside the digital systems meant to prevent it. What used to be crude tricks have now become subtle, behaviour-driven methods that easily slip through traditional verification workflows. And as businesses move toward faster onboarding, higher user volumes, and stricter compliance expectations, the margin for error becomes thinner.
The future of identity security will not be about adding more checks.
It will be about connecting the right signals together.
Platforms that combine:
- multi-source validation,
- behavioural and phone intelligence,
- name-similarity and linguistic patterns,
- address normalization,
- document authenticity checks, and
- employment or financial history mapping
…are far better equipped to catch manipulation without slowing down genuine users.
The real challenge isn’t just to stop fraud—it’s to close the loopholes that make fraud worth attempting in the first place. When verification journeys become smarter, contextual, and layered, identity manipulation stops being a cheap, easy hack.Because at the end of the day, the goal isn’t to keep people out.
It’s to make sure the right people walk through the door—
without punishing the honest users who already follow the rules.
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