A Typical Fraudster

A new report suggests forty-something males most likely to be victims of fraud.

New figures released by CIFAS suggest that men in their forties are most likely to find themselves becoming victims of identity fraud than any other demographic.

Product Range	Average age (Male Identity Fraud victims)	Average age (Female Identity Fraud victims)
Asset Finance	43.27	43.36
Bank Accounts	47.81	46.60
Communications	45.15	40.67
Plastic Cards	46.17	43.14
Insurance	50.92	46.17
Loans	45.84	42.68
Mortgages	48.16	39.73
‘All in one’ / Combined (e.g. mortgage, loan and bank account) products	47.07	43.44

Whilst the information shows the identities fraudster’s are most likely to utilise, what do we actually know about the fraudster’s themselves?

192.com Business Services recently published the Modus Operandi Whitepaper; this sets out ways in which fraudster’s work, including how they gain false identities and how they use these to their advantage.

Another essential tool for Fraud Managers is sharing data in order to gain fraud alerts. By sharing data on fraudulent transactions, fraud managers are able, in turn to receive real time fraud alerts, to ensure increased intelligence and more efficient fraud detection.

eCrime Petition: the Government's Response

The government has responded to an e-crime petition calling for the formation of a central e-crime unit. The petition was signed by over 450 members of the fraud prevention community, including a number of key figures such as Lord Harris of Haringey.

The government has now published it's response which can be read on-line here.

The response states that the governement is "currently in receipt of the proposal by the Metropolitan Police Service and ACPO and are actively considering the issues it has raised and the value of creating such a unit."

It also notes current measures to prevent e-crime, citing the value of Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) for reporting certain e-crimes.

For those interested in online fraud prevention, the response refers back to measures already underway as part of the work of the National Fraud Strategic Authority and National Fraud Reporting Centre.

The response ends with the statement: "The Government is committed to providing adequate responses to this area of crime in a unified way without duplicating the work carried out by other organisations".

To read the response yourself, please click here.

If you have comments you would like to share on this page, please click here.

Application Fraud on the Increase

A new report has been released by CIFAS – The UK’s Fraud Prevention Service. It reveals that more people that ever before are lying on application forms in order to gain credit, insurance and other financial products.

The research highlighted a 24% increase in application fraud; with 77,000 recorded cases in 2007. Frauds recorded took the form of both application fraud and many also involved the use of false or altered supporting documents.

Worryingly, 1 in 5 of every fraudulent application was successful, meaning that in 2007 14,500 cases of fraud were successful. This news, combined with the recent news of an increase in mortgage fraud, and the rise in CNP fraud, highlights a worrying increase of fraud affecting the Financial Sector.

One of the most common lies told during application fraud is regarding the length of time the applicant was resident at an address. However using address verification, or wider identity verification checks these claims can easily be verified, enabling businesses to detect and prevent fraud.

The CIFAS report also profiled the fraudsters highlighted in their research, and some of these details are displayed below. The full CIFAS article can be viewed here.

Card Not Present Fraud Increases by 37%

The UK Payments Association; APACS have announced their latest figures on card fraud, and they make uneasy reading for services and retailers accepting CNP payments.

The figures state a 25%  overall increase of card fraud losses, despite the recent introduction of chip and pin technology. The fact that fraud abroad has increased to £90.5 million may explain this however; as it appears that there is an increase in stolen cards being used abroad, in countries which have not yet upgraded to chip and pin technology. Fraud abroad now counts for almost one third of total card losses showing that fraud really is an international problem.

For internet, phone and mail order retails there is more bad news; Card Not Present fraud has increased by 37% overall, putting the cost of CNP fraud in 2007 to £290.5 million. There is however some good news, that mail non-receipt fraud or ‘friendly fraud’ as it is commonly known is at an all time low with a year on year decrease of 34%.

Good news also for the online banking community: banking fraud losses have dropped by 33% perhaps reflecting better security measures and consumer education campaigns within the sector.

With an increase in CNP fraud, the industry needs to enhance their fraud prevention measures; identity verification is an effective way to prevent CNP fraud, and the recent announcement of the formation of a Payments Industry and Police Joint Intelligence Unit (PIPJIU) will bring optimism to CNP retailers.

You can read the entire APACS release here.

Identity Fraud: A Celebrity Perspective

How do you go about protecting your identity when you are one of the most famous faces in the UK?

It has been reported that thieves cut a picture of Ricky Gervais from the back of a DVD box and stuck it into a fake passport. That was enough to siphon almost £200,000 from his bank account. The thieves had planned to convert the cash into gold bars using the false Gervais identity but were thwarted by a suspicious bullion dealer. He could not believe the comedian would ever buy that much gold and called the police. It would suggest that the bank in question was not using the most robust identity verification procedures available in the first place; to allow such a crudely made passport to pass their security checks!

Football Fraud

Chelsea’s Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and Salomon Kalou, Arsenal’s Emmanuel Eboue and Kolo Toure, Tottenham’s Didier Zokora, Liverpool’s Momo Sissoko and Manchester United’s Manucho were also put at great risk of identity fraud.

An official at the African Cup of Nations decided it would be fun for the fans to know the passport numbers of every player in the tournament – so they were all put up on the official web site.

A quick Google search would allow a fraudster to obtain details such as date of birth making the passport numbers highly valuable. Luckily, someone realised the mistake and the passport details were removed from the site quickly.

Other Famous Fraud

Other recent celebrity victims of identity fraud include Lily Allen, Harry Hill, Oprah Winfrey and even Larry Ellison the CEO of Oracle. More celebrity fraud stories can be found in the original article, as published by Finance Daily.

These examples show that fraud is a threat and that the simple rules concerning protecting your identity apply to everyone, whether you are a Bafta winner or not!

For businesses, the above examples illustrate how easy it is to obtain one single measure of identity verification; such as a passport or date of birth. However a multi-layered approach to verifying identity would have prevented all of the cases above, and prove how valuable a range of identity checks can be in the fight against fraud.

2008 Electoral Roll Now Live

As our exisiting customers will already be aware, the new Electoral Roll data for 2008 is now live, and searchable in all 192.com Business Services products.

192.com was the first company to offer the 2008 electoral roll data to the public, and we have quickly followed suit, to make sure that your searches and identity checks are as up to date as possible.

The 2008 Electoral Roll data has added over 28 million additional records into the searchable data. This means that our customers now have 630 million records available to aid with identity verification and people searching.

This, combined with the recent addition of age guides, makes 192.com Business Services one of the most powerful search and verification tools available.

An update on the Electoral Roll 2009 can be found here.

Mortgage Fraud: Latest Figure Tops £700million

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has released a restricted report into mortgage fraud which puts the figure of confirmed mortgage fraud at £700million.

Although the report has not been made public, the report will be distributed to the financial industry as well as to police forces across the UK.

Mike Bowron, ACPO lead on economic crime and Commissioner of the city of London police, said:

“Organised mortgage fraud can take many forms and while difficult to measure accurately, remains a significant element of the UK’s annual fraud losses. In sharing this report with the financial industry and police forces nationally we are raising awareness of the problem and how to tackle it."

Tackling Mortgage Fraud

ACPO has given a range of examples of how mortgage fraud can be prevented. The organisation also supports the National Fraud Strategic Authority (NFSA), whose Director, Sandra Quinn spoke at the last 192.com Business Services Prove-ID Fraud Forum.

Mortagage fraud creates high profit opportunities for fraudsters, with a relatively low risk of detection. The ACPO report states that in one fraudster was able to make a profit of more than £10,000,000. With such high value crime, mortgage fraud also has obvious appeal to gangs of organised criminals, including terrorist groups.

How is mortgage fraud committed and how can it be prevented?

Over valuation is a relatively easy way to ensure a quick but fraudulent profit. Conveyance  professionals can also support fraudulent activity.

There is also the more traditional problem of bogus applicants using fake ID documents, such as pay slips, passports, and national insurance numbers.

One of ACPO’s recommendations is that “an automated, preferably online, system of checking all mortgage applications against official records including passports, driving licences, National Insurance numbers, declared income and benefits data” is created.

Using 192.com Business Services, mortgage lenders and other finance professionals are able to carry out online identity checks as well as checking paper documents such as passports, driver’s licences and NI numbers using Document-ID.

With lending fraud costing an estimated £370 billion in 2007, mortgage fraud represents a small proportion of a wider problem, yet a significant loss to those in the finance industry as well as to the wider population of home owners.

Pre-Pay Cards: The Industry Fights Back

As leading identity verification specialists in the pre-paid market, we are able to report a 500% rise in the volume of ID checks being run by prepaid operators to prevent fraudsters creating prepaid accounts with false and stolen identities.

In the past three months, we have signed deals with operators including EasyKard, POS Payment Systems, Altair, PDQ online and Spectrum.

In the UK card fraud amounts to £428 million according to the latest card fraud research from APACS. Card schemes and the ecommerce communities have fought back against the fraudster by employing fraud prevention technologies such as ID checks and IP address validation technology.  However, Fraudsters are always on the look-out for new tools to help them commit CNP fraud and the opportunity to load funds onto prepaid cards with stolen and cloned credit cards extends the “window of fraud opportunity”. 

Our ID check service for prepaid operators called 192 Prepaid-ID is a global solution, and verifies customer name, address, date of birth and home telephone number. The checks happen in real-time when customers create their prepaid account – but in the background, so a prospective customer never knows they’re taking place.

“With criminals using a number of techniques to commit card fraud, we feel it is important to always be one step ahead and to protect our customers in the best possible way. 192 Prepaid-ID is helping us to do just that,” said Edward Platt, at EasyKard.

Adam Rigler MD of Spectrum says, “www.red88.co.uk is a pre-paid card targeted at the UK and EU Chinese / Asian markets. ID checking can be a lengthy process, but Spectrum Financial Group, made the process simple with the help of 192 Prepaid-ID.”

“Fraudsters are an entrepreneurial and opportunistic breed,” said David Pope, director at 192.com Business Services. “If they see a new tool available to them in their pursuit of card fraud they will seize that opportunity. ID verification at the point of prepaid card account creation adds that crucial layer of security so that prepaid operators can prevent prepaid accounts being opened with false or stolen identities.  A fraudster would then have to be pretty stupid to open an account in their own name and load a prepaid account with funds from a stolen or cloned credit card.”

Prove ID Fraud Forum

The 6th Prove-ID event at the Imperial War Museum, London was the biggest held so far, with a record number of delegates in attendance.

With presentations from Ed Gibson of Microsoft, Sandra Quinn of the NFSA, Scott Engel of Expedia and Scott Gicking of the FBI, the day was rated as extremely informative by our attendees.

The panel session held in the afternoon was also mentioned as a highlight of the day by many delegates and we would like to thank Ikea, Eurostar and Pixmania for their valuable contributions.

The workshop sessions proved popular, and the day provided plenty of opportunity for networking. Thanks also to everyone who joined us for networking drinks in the evening.

If you missed out on the Imperial War Museum event, then another event is planned for later in the year, details will be released here first, so keep checking back!

Age Verification Bill in Parliament

192 quoted in proposed bill to ensure verification for age restricted good bought on line.

Margaret Moran, Labour MP for Luton South proposed a new bill regarding the online purchase of goods and services, relating to age verification.

Read on the 22nd January in the House of Commons, the proposed new bill would require online retailers to verify customers in the respect of age restricted goods and services.

David Pope, Marketing Director at 192.com Business Services was quoted in Margaret’s reading, stating:

“the online gaming industry has already proved that they can enable an instant customer age verification during the online transaction without incurring significant additional costs and without harming the customers experience”.

192 believe that age verification is a fast and easy check that can easily integrate into the customer acquisition process, and furthermore can ensure both legal and moral compliance, as well as brand protection.

The next reading of the bill is scheduled for Friday 16th May, and you can read a transcript of the previous speech here.