US Patent 9300676 Risk assessment using social networking data

Tools, strategies, and techniques are provided for evaluating the identities of different entities to protect individual consumers, business enterprises, and other organizations from identity theft and fraud. Risks associated with various entities can be analyzed and assessed based on analysis of social network data, professional network data, or other networking connections, among other data sources. In various embodiments, the risk assessment may include calculating an authenticity score based on the collected network data.