In the last months of lock-down, due to COVID-19, there has been a lot of talking with regards to the necessity to detect frauds and strengthen all the security measures to prevent potential online identity thefts.
This is also due to the fact that hackers have seen a rise in the volume of potential victims.
Those actions that can help individuals to prevent ID theft are particularly important for all those Companies who manage their Clients’ identity data, information and banking as well as electronic payment information for hundreds of thousands (in some cases millions) of users.
It is also important to say that in the last few years Companies (Financial Institutions, Consumer Credit Companies, Telcos, Leasing, Car rentals, Insurance Companies) have invested large sums to increase cyber security in order to perfect the processes relating digital Clients’ on-boarding.
V Directive has made a substantial contribution towards fraud prevention. Unfortunately improving the number of security measures does not always mean that the problems have been solved.
Financial Institutions have been pushed to adopt fraud prevention tools by EU regulations (“PSD2 Directive” aiming at increasing security relating electronic payment, and “V Directive” to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing) in fear of large fines by the Authorities or due to internal Compliance protocols violations.
The development of new technologies to streamline remote Clients on-boarding (KYC) – such as Clients’ biometrics and behaviour analytics – has managed to offer a higher security standards for online bank access, online credit cards’ payments and to obtain services.
However, in many cases, instead of stopping criminals committing their crimes, the perpetrators have been given the chance to act in a secure fashion allowing them to operate under a new and fake identity as the face found on a counterfeit ID document, even if validated through biometry, allows them to operate freely.
Would it be normal if - during a Police control - someone would ask the driver what is his favourite colour?
Surely not!
We all know that the first thing Police Forces do is ask any driver for his/her ID documents in order to verify who they are dealing with.
So what?
Companies which are lacking the correct tools to carry out an in-depth document check in order to verify the real identity of their potential Clients will not be able to detect frauds while having granted access to their enemies.
In these cases, the enemy could be a fraudster, a criminal or a terrorist.
Why is investing in fraud prevention necessary?
Despite having an intelligence-based advanced document checking system is a must and requires an investment, it is also true that these kinds of services cost only a few Eurocents.
We would like to suggest all Antifraud and KYC/AML Managers to ask themselves the following three questions:
1. How much would cost my Company a reputational damage due to an improper KYC protocol?
2. What would the consequences be should a Company have to face multiple victims’ compensation which could have been prevented with a proper security check procedure?
3. How much could we save each year if we could prevent frauds by investing in an advanced document checking system specifically develop for this kind of issues?
The first 2 questions make each Company accountable.
As far as the third question is concerned, we can state that our Clients - right from year 1 - have reduced frauds by up to 98,5% by adopting our document verification system, saving tens of Millions of Euros.
What to do to prevent document frauds?
If you are interested in the question, probably you are also interested in knowing what services we can offer to prevent document frauds.
ARIKI Group is the only European Company to have developed an intelligence-based advanced document checking system with a more than 20 years experience alongside many national and international Police Forces in relation to document counterfeiting consultancy.
Our API-based solution has been developed to be perfectly integrated within our Clients’ IT architectures.
Moreover, we also manage a fake ID and fake aliases database which is continuously populated by frauds that have previously occurred.
A good reason to invest in fraud detection.
Unfortunately, Covid-19 will bring along an inevitable peak in frauds in all commercial sectors.
This is why this may be the best time to evaluate implementing an effective document checking system to keep frauds away from your Company.
