Fake accounts come in many forms and have a wide range of consequences.
PayPal recently discovered 4.5 million fake accounts created by bot farms that fraudsters were using to automatically open accounts in response to marketing campaigns.
Meanwhile, at Wells Fargo, fraud was happening on the inside, in a scheme to generate millions of dollars in fees and interest by creating fake accounts. And a 2023 Associated Press report described fraudsters creating accounts with falsified credentials to collect billions in Covid-19 relief money from the federal government.