By: Jane Hennessy, Head of External Alliances

 

We all know the fraudsters are getting more aggressive, bold and craftier. Who would have thought they would actually be marketing their services? Just check out some of the videos they post on YouTube and you’ll see that they give instructions on how to quickly get involved in a fraudulent scheme (seems easier than tiling a floor, which I recently watched). They also advertise how many stolen or fake credit cards you can purchase or how much it costs to buy nearly 30,000 email addresses for fraudulent purposes — better than a blue light special at only $5.00.

 

I recently attended a Kount Fraud360 fraud prevention seminar and one of the speakers said there are two types of fraud, those who KNOW they have been hit and those that WILL be hit. Those who think they don’t have a problem are like the people who think they don’t need a seatbelt because they are safe drivers. No one is safe from these insidious acts, but you should not expect governmental assistance unless the magnitude of the crime and dollar amount is very high. So if you’re on your own, what can you do?

 

In order to most effectively combat fraud, you need to develop a layered approach. There is no one silver bullet or secret sauce. You need to do as much as you can (and that might not even be enough) and employ as many tactics and approaches possible. Automation is a critical component as you often can’t just throw bodies at a problem. That approach simply isn’t scalable and humans make mistakes. Also, you need to ensure you are being proactive and not just reacting to fraud after it has occurred. So some of the layers you need to consider (this is not an all-encompassing list) are illustrated in the following stack.

 

You may be employing a number of these already, but are you really getting at the hidden risks such as changing business models, links to past fraudulent activities and so on? If not, G2 Web Services has solutions to help with your KYC process as well as your ongoing monitoring of business risk. Click here to learn more.