In Focus Risk
Playing a part in the solution
Identity fraud has risen ‘inexorably’ – it is time to play fraudsters at their own game
Martin Cheek Managing director, SmartSearch
martin.cheek @
smartsearchuk.com
According to Cifas, the UK’s fraud prevention service, fraud in the UK has risen ‘inexorably’ in the past year. Its report shows that identity fraud has
risen by 8% compared with 2017, with 189,108 cases recorded in 2018. The areas which have seen the steepest rises are ‘plastic card’ fraud, which has increased by 41%, and fraud against over-60s, which has gone up by a third.
Money mules The other area which has seen a significant rise is money-mule activity – that is to say,
by the fact that instances of identity fraud in trying to gain a mortgage were unchanged.
Identity fraud But, as we can see from these numbers, identity fraud is by far and away the biggest area of growth within fraud. And with the increasingly more sophisticated false identity documents fraudsters are able to produce, it is, perhaps, no wonder that they can slip through the net more easily. According to Cifas, the only way to fight the fraudsters is by working together to
look like the real thing, and through manual checks, will, therefore, pass as the real thing. Often, the passport numbers on these fake
passports are real because they have been stolen from a legitimate passport, so, even when they are inputted into a system, they will not be seen as fake. The only way to be sure to catch such people is through electronic identification. It is only by cross-checking the information that you will catch them out. The most common type of mortgage fraud
is application fraud, but there has never been a case linked to electronic verification.
What we need to do is play them at their own game. We know that fraudsters can produce passports and driving licences that look like the real thing, and through manual checks, will, therefore, pass as the real thing
instances of people who are recruited to transport and launder stolen money, or to steal credit-card information – it was up 26%. One area which saw a fall was mortgage
fraud – it fell by 18%. This sounds very positive, but Cifas said that, rather than representing a real decline, it is more to do with the fact that instances in 2017 were unusually high, so levels are falling back to what they would expect. This is backed up
September 2019
‘present a united front’. This is, of course, vital if we are going to stop fraudsters, but we also need to think about how we are going to stop them if their fake identity documents are so convincing? If a combined and collaborative approach is failing to spot fake IDs, we need to go further. What we need to do is play them at their
own game. We know that fraudsters can produce passports and driving licences that
www.CCRMagazine.com In fact, electronic verification is now so
widely agreed to be the most reliable, secure, and efficient source of information for identity solutions that the Fifth Money- Laundering Directive calls for electronic verification to be used when possible. Not only does using an electronic platform
save time and money, but it guarantees to offer a failsafe solution that ensures full compliance now and in the future. CCR
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