Identity & Fraud

If you’re anything like me, you’re likely spending much more time online these days. From online shopping to grocery and food delivery and thumbing through our social media feeds – the COVID-19 pandemic has many of us spending more time in our homes and “plugged in” than ever before.   The COVID-19 pandemic has also contributed to an increase in fraud activity. According to the FTC from January to early October 2020, consumers have reported losing a total of more than $156 million to COVID-19-related fraud.  At Experian, we are committed to protecting consumer financial health during the pandemic and beyond. Educating consumers about how to protect their personal information online is key to supporting this effort.   As we prepare to enter the holiday season in our virtual world and in honor of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I’d like to share a few ways you can protect your financial health online:   Shop Safely Online   As I mentioned, the amount of shopping you do online has likely increased significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a trend that’s expected to continue. In fact, according to a recent report from Experian, as many as half of consumers globally expect their spending online to increase in the next 12 months. Practicing safe online shopping habits is always important. This is especially true now.   While you may not be spending as much time in airports or your local coffee shops, it is a good practice to avoiding using your financial information to make purchases online if you are on a public WiFi network. Without a password protected network, you have a higher risk of fraudsters gaining access to your banking information which could significantly damage your financial health. Using a virtual private network or a VPN can be an added layer of protection when you are entering your financial information online.    Using a credit card to make your online purchases is also a useful way to protect yourself against losses tied to fraudulent charges. According to the federal Fair Credit Billing Act if your credit card — the physical card — is stolen and used to make fraudulent purchases, your issuer can hold you responsible for up to $50 in fraudulent charges. However, if you report the card stolen before any fraudulent charges are made, you have no liability. If your card number is stolen but you’re still in possession of the card, you’re not responsible for any fraudulent charges.  Avoid Falling for Phishing Emails   Phishing is an attempt to obtain sensitive information for criminal and fraudulent purposes through email. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, there have been increased reports of phishing attempts around COVID-19 testing, vaccines, treatments and cures. Keep in mind that generally if something sounds too good to be true, it likely is. To prevent damage to your identity or your financial health avoid opening any suspected phishing emails and never click on included links.   While phishing emails are getting more sophisticated, there are a few clues that can help you identify one in your inbox.  If you receive a suspicious looking email, look at the sender name or email address. Phishing emails tend to have suspicious email addresses that are often different than the name of the sender (it could be anything from a slight misspelling of the senders name to an email address that is completely different). It’s also common for phishing emails to use urgent language and include unusual attachments or links.   While reputable organizations may sometimes ask for personal information over email, pay close attention to the details of the email before sharing any of your information. It may be a better idea to call the requesting organization and find out if there is a more secure way to do whatever it is they may be requesting. Always think twice before clicking any links. When in doubt, type the organization’s name into an internet search and visit the site directly.  Protect Your Passwords  This is a basic point, but one that is commonly overlooked. Using complex passwords can be your first line of defense against potential cyber threats. I know it can be challenging but avoid using the same password for multiple online accounts. When you’re creating unique passwords, it’s best to include a minimum of eight characters with a variety of letters, numbers and symbols.  Keeping track of your passwords for your online bank accounts, email, social media, shopping apps and online medical portals can be a lot to manage. A password manager subscription can be a convenient and secure way to manage your passwords. They are affordable and more secure than writing down all your passwords or using the same password for multiple accounts.    Avoid Over Sharing on Social Media  Oversharing on social can lead to unwanted implications. For example, fraudsters and criminals can learn a lot about you from the data included in the photos you share online, including where you are and when you are there. Avoid photos of items that can be used to determine more information about you such as your license plate or the front of your home. Keep in mind, that while it may be tempting to share photos of your family vacations on your social networks, this may also tell unwanted visitors that you are not home.     Use tools to Combat Fraudsters   Checking your credit report regularly can help you stay informed about potentially fraudulent activity. In an effort to encourage consumers to monitor and understand the information in their credit reports, Experian joined forces with the other U.S. credit reporting agencies, to offer free weekly credit reports to all Americans through April 2021 via www.annualcredreport.com.      Credit monitoring services can help you spot potential fraud early. Experian offers free and paid services that provide daily credit monitoring alerts for things like new inquiries and accounts opened in your name, changes to your personal information and suspicious activity detected on your Experian credit report.   You can find more National Cybersecurity Awareness Month resources to protect yourself online here.  

In May 2020, Experian launched Sure Profile and became the first company with an offering to fight synthetic identity fraud that’s integrated into the credit profile with market-leading assurance. In fact, we are so confident in our solution that we’ll share in loan losses on assured profiles if we get it wrong, a first for the industry. Recently, International Data Corporation (IDC) highlighted Sure Profile in the report, IDC, Synthetic Identity Fraud Update: Effects of COVID-19 and a Potential Cure from Experian (doc #US46690220, July 2020) stating “IDC Financial Insights believes that Experian's Sure Profile has the potential to have market disrupting effects in the battle against SIF (synthetic identity fraud).” According to McKinsey, synthetic identity fraud is the fastest growing financial crime in the United States, accounting for 10% to 15% of lender losses each year. Synthetic identity fraud occurs when fraudsters combine real and fake information to create “Frankenstein IDs” which are then used to obtain credit or to add these identities as authorized users to existing credit accounts. Then, financial institutions report the identities to credit reporting agencies. A new record with the false information is created and subsequently, the synthetic identity can be used to generate other fake accounts. It is a significant problem that Juniper Research expects will lead to $48 billion in annual online payment fraud losses by 2023. IDC recommends that financial institutions consider Sure Profile when researching how to fight synthetic identity fraud. For institutions that use an analytical platform to detect synthetic identities, IDC suggests examining Sure Profile to see how it can supplement their models, or even replace them. "Synthetic identity fraud is a massive problem for banks, and I believe that the effects of COVID-19 will exacerbate the problem. However, at the same time, Experian launched a new offering that I believe will be a game changer for how banks attack the synthetic identity problem." — Steven D'Alfonso, research director, IDC Financial Insights Sure Profile validates identities, detects profiles that have an increased risk for synthetic identity fraud and helps cover resulting losses for assured profiles. Leveraging the capabilities of the Experian Ascend Identity Platform™, it uses data to drive advanced analytics, including newly developed machine learning models that predict the likelihood of synthetic identity behavior. Sure Profile provides lenders a simple approach to define and detect synthetic identities early in the originations process. To learn more, check out Experian's Sure Profile.

Experian is a proud member of the Better Identity Coalition, which is committed to working alongside policymakers to improve digital security, identity verification, privacy and convenience for everyone. Together, we’re seeking innovative ways to empower Americans to take control of their identities and conduct online business securely.   On September 11, 2020, a bipartisan group of House members led by Congressman Bill Foster, introduced the “Improving Digital Identity Act of 2020” to modernize and digitize our essential government identity infrastructure.  Through the Better Identity Coalition, Experian supports this bill and the steps it’s taking to help improve digital identity, security and privacy for Americans.    As a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers and businesses have quickly adapted to doing nearly everything digitally, but most government-issued identity credentials, such as drivers’ licenses and passports, were not created to be verified online. The “Improving Digital Identity Act” creates a comprehensive approach across federal, state and local government to address critical shortcomings in identity tools that today make it easy for fraudsters to prey on Americans.  The bill creates a framework of standards that new identity solutions should follow to ensure privacy. The bill also allows for federal grants to be given to states to jumpstart modernization of the systems that provide driver’s licenses or other types of credentials to enable digital identity verification, in accordance with the NIST framework. It’s important that the bill gets passed to bring the United States up to speed on digital identity and help fix government-issued identity problems.  In addition to supporting bills like the “Improving Digital Identity Act of 2020,” Experian is working hard to develop new innovations to make digital commerce safer for consumers and businesses. Our most recent innovation, Sure Profile makes us the first company with an offering to fight synthetic identity fraud that’s integrated into the credit profile with market-leading assurance. In fact, we are so confident in our solution that we’ll share in loan losses on assured profiles if we get it wrong. Experian is also proud to be the only credit bureau in the initial rollout of the Social Security Administration’s new electronic Consent Based Social Security Verification service. Our inclusion ensures our clients have the tools to more easily detect online fraud while also better recognizing legitimate consumers.       

Juniper Research released their Online Payment Fraud 2020-2024 report in May highlighting key trends in digital fraud, it’s implications on businesses and consumers as well as a competitive analysis for advanced solutions available to secure digital payments. Experian is proud to have contributed to the research and its CrossCore solution considered on their Fraud Detection & Prevention Leaderboard. Key takeaways: We’re in the middle of a payment revolution with mobile payments on the rise. Nearly half the world will be using digital wallets by 2024, with transaction values to increase by almost 60% to over $9 trillion in 2024. Omnichannel expectations are creating new challenges for online payments as new technologies for creating convenience are being exploited by cybercriminals, but it’s preventable. Juniper Research forecasts a $25.5 billion eCommerce transaction fraud loss in 2019, a 17% increase in 2018. By 2024, this will double to almost $50.5 billion. The Fraud Detection & Prevention Leaderboard is an assessment based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures but not considered a ranking or exhaustive list of solutions on the market. Experian’s flagship solution, CrossCore, just released its latest advanced features and offers unique functionality that lives up to its layered approach for mitigating fraud and authenticating customers. CrossCore is an integrated digital identity and fraud risk platform that combines rich data assets from Experian with identity insights and capabilities from its curated partner ecosystem. Through sophisticated orchestration, it applies advanced analytics to give businesses confidence in every transaction. CrossCore combines risk-based authentication, identity proofing, and fraud detection into a single cloud platform to make real-time risk decisions throughout the customer lifecycle. The platform is designed to help clients differentiate between their good and bad customers, without disrupting good customers, or increasing customer friction in their attempts to stop fraud. Key profile features: Our partner network, some of which we don’t publicly disclose, cover a variety of categories including, behavioural biometrics (Biocatch), traditional biometrics (Daon), document verification (Mitek, Acuant, Onfido), call centre risk assessments (TrustID, NextCaller), email verification (Emailage), Alternative Data (Ekata, Global Data Consortium, HelloSoda, Pipl), Mobile Phone Verification (Boku/Danal) and Chargeback Management (Chargebacks911). Customers include banks, eCommerce merchants and retail companies, telecommunications providers, travel providers, health providers, insurance companies, and public sector organizations. Advanced Decisioning: CrossCore is designed to leverage the complete raw output in our partner network to perform advanced analytics via Experian’s native machine learning infrastructure. This approach includes a hybrid of Unsupervised models (to generate features), Supervised generic or custom models per use case, and a business rules infrastructure. This provides high levels of accuracy to the client, leading to significantly reduced friction and operational costs. Find out how Experian’s capabilities compare and hear from our experts on how to balance security with convenient customer experiences.  

To combat a growing threat that’s expected to drive $48 billion in annual online payment fraud losses by 20231,  Experian®  has announced the launch of Sure Profile™. Experian is the first company with an offering to combat synthetic identity fraud that is integrated into the credit profile with market-leading assurance. We are proud to be the first in our industry to actually put “skin-in-the-game” by sharing in fraud losses with our clients if the losses occur on assured profiles.  Experian’s new offering validates consumer identities, detects profiles that have an increased risk for synthetic identity fraud and helps cover losses resulting from synthetic identity fraud for assured profiles.   Leveraging the capabilities of the Experian Ascend Identity Platform™, Sure Profile utilizes Experian’s industry-leading data assets and data quality to drive advanced analytics that set a higher level of protection for lenders. Powered by newly developed machine learning and AI models, Sure Profile offers lenders a streamlined approach to define and detect synthetic identities early in the originations process.   Experian’s Sure Profile differentiates between real people and potentially risky applicants, so lenders can confidently increase application approvals with less risk.    We expect to authenticate most credit applications through Sure Profile. In the cases where the identity can’t be assured, the company will deliver additional fraud risk indicators, so that lenders can take the right next steps to verify the potential borrower’s identity and prevent fraud.  To date, detecting synthetic identities has been a significant challenge for lenders because there’s not an industry standard or a single definition that can be used to establish the legitimacy of an identity. In addition, understanding the financial impact of synthetics has been difficult for lenders as losses tied to synthetic identity fraud are typically categorized as defaults or “bad debt.” With Sure Profile, we are reinforcing our position as a leader by creating a standard set of criteria to define a synthetic identity.   Experian has always been a leader in combatting fraud, and with Sure Profile, we’re proud to deliver an industry-first fraud offering integrated into the credit profile that mitigates lender losses while protecting millions of consumers’ identities. Our investments in innovation, AI and machine learning and our data quality are enabling us to lead the way in identity protection and help protect consumers and lenders alike. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt lives across the globe, fraudsters continue to take advantage of the vulnerable situation. The opportunistic nature of fraudsters means that times of crisis and pandemics open up additional breeding grounds for fraud and identity theft. Our latest CrossCore® release has never been more relevant for businesses than right now. Confidently recognizing consumers and safeguarding digital transactions is always a difficult balance – but now more critical than ever. With CrossCore, businesses can limit fraud losses and reduce unnecessary customer friction, at a time when safe and convenient access to financial services is essential.  This new version of CrossCore, our integrated digital identity and fraud risk platform, combines risk-based authentication, identity proofing, and fraud detection into a single, cloud-based platform. This means that businesses have the capabilities and technology they need to rapidly respond to an ever-changing environment. With flexible decisioning orchestration, advanced analytics, and pre-integrated identity and fraud services, businesses can make real-time risk decisions throughout the customer lifecycle. And they can do all of this through simple self-service.  We know there’s no silver bullet when it comes to fighting fraud, which is why we continue to develop our curated partner ecosystem. This gives companies access to all the technology and capabilities they need, in one place – whether it be Experian’s, our partners’, or their own. We combine this with advanced analytics and our own rich data assets plus a built-in strategy design and enhanced workflow giving fraud and compliance teams more control to adjust strategies based on evolving threats. This helps improve efficiency and reduce operational costs.   Updates to the new version include the ability for clients to submit dynamic API request payloads, apply progressive risk assessments, apply parallel logic, enable self-service workflow configurations, and provide an online business intelligence (BI) module to view transactional volume reports. These updates will give CrossCore users a simpler way to manage complex orchestration; faster more scalable performance; and key performance indicators in near real-time, all while enabling a personalized and seamless experience for their true customers.   More than 250 clients worldwide use CrossCore today, including capabilities from our third-party partners. To start leveraging best-in-class, pre-integrated identity and fraud services through simple self-service learn more about the Experian CrossCore platform.  

Explore Experian’s insights for customer identity and its interrelationship with security, convenience, and personalization, from consumers and businesses Businesses often talk about creating the ultimate digital experience for customers but far less about the interrelationship between security, convenience, and personalization. This results in siloed security measures at major decision points across the customer journey. And, it’s a disconnect that’s perpetuated through equally siloed CRM systems that strive to identify customer preferences but fail to do so in a consistent and appealing way. The impact on consumers is that they are dragged through a maze of security and risk protocols while at the same time being targeted or re-targeted products and services that are not always relevant. We challenged senior executives at 650 companies to think about whether they can accurately identify their customers and meet their customers’ needs for a relevant experience to not only help them create a more trusted relationship with a consumer but also to reduce fraud losses. We also surveyed over 6,500 consumers who had a lot to say about what constitutes best-in-class digital customer experience. Perception versus reality Our study found that 95% of businesses worldwide believe they are accurately identifying their customers yet 55% of consumers don’t feel recognized.   In our survey last year, 84% of businesses said that if they could better identify their customers, then they could easily spot fraud.  However, 57% of business reported having significantly higher fraud losses this year versus last year.  How can this be true if businesses are in fact as strong as they believe they are at recognizing their customers and thus, presumably by extension, fraudsters? This then begs the question: how are businesses defining “recognition” and is it really working?   Are they recognizing a customer to a person or are they able to categorize a customer into prescriptive buckets such as broad demographic delineations? Expectations for customer engagement Our study also found that 74% of consumers say security is still the most important factor when deciding to engage with a business online. This has been a consistent finding over the past two years. In fact, consumers are even willing to give more personal information for greater security and easier access to their accounts later, once they are comfortable. Despite this, over half of businesses are prioritizing personalization over security when making improvements to their customer experience.  Consumers acknowledged experiencing and appreciating the changes businesses are making to their digital experience however security remained to be their most important criteria for engaging or continuing to engage with a business. What now? Desires for ultimate experience and concerns for security are still shaping the digital relationship between consumers and businesses where identity is at the heart of every customer decision and interaction.  We believe businesses will need to invest further in data, infrastructure, and advanced analytics in order to get to a point of truly recognizing a consumer digitally as opposed to categorizing for broad brush pseudo personalization purposes.  Only then will businesses start to make a dent in fulfilling the high consumer expectations for recognition as well as in mitigating rising fraud. Download our report (15 min read) and find out more about: Challenges standing in the way of businesses trying to identify their customers What different businesses and countries are doing to improve identity authentication The new type of customer journey that executives believe will improve the digital experience

Today (Nov. 11) Americans celebrate Veterans Day to honor all of the men and women who have served our country in uniform and to thank those who are currently serving around the world. We also take time to welcome a new generation of veterans home from war. We remember our Gold Star families who have endured the loss of a family member making the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country. More than 25 million veterans are now home in America. They are our friends, our families, and our loved ones. Far too many have endured the shock and pain of a combat deployment, some have become disabled, and many have made the ultimate sacrifice. All who have served have given up some of themselves as well as some of the best years of their lives. Experian is proud to embrace our veteran community and allow the flexibility for our coworkers who continue to serve. Our Military, Veterans And Patriots Employee Resource Group continues to be involved in many opportunities across our local communities from building wheelchair ramps for disabled veterans to participating in endurance challenges such as Carry the Load National Relay road march and the Murph Challenge. We recently launched Experian IDnotify, a credit and identity protection service, at no cost for those who are on active duty. We are committed to serving those who are serving us. If you have a family member or friend serving on active duty, please share the link. This Veterans Day let us take a moment to remember the sacrifices of the courageous men and women who heroically fought for the freedom and honor of America to make it the greatest nation on earth!  

Eva lets out a deeply frustrated exhale as she navigates moving boxes in her new apartment towards a nearby chair. She was just trying to update her address online and take care of some online banking money transfers. Now her accounts are frozen, and she has received a message to call the bank's fraud department. How could she be a fraudster? She was only guilty of taking a job and moving to Chicago. Maybe it's time to start thinking about changing banks... Meanwhile, in the bank's Texas-based fraud department, Robert spots Eva's case in his fraud investigations list. He noticed some suspicious activities and leaves Eva a voicemail, wanting to ask her a few questions to verify her identity or otherwise confirm this is in fact a fraudster infiltrating Eva's account. To prevent this potential risk of fraud from escalating, Robert decides it is better to freeze Eva's accounts while he confirms that it's actually Eva who is trying to change her address and not a fraudster using a stolen password. As both Robert and Eva work to connect and clear up this mix-up, Robert isn't getting to spend his time finding actual fraud and protecting his bank from any potential losses. Fraud hubs bring together advanced authentication technology and risk mitigation systems into a single platform As fraud attacks grow more frequent and complex, new technologies have sprung up to help meet the challenge, using a variety of tactics and tools to detect fraud. This is the case of device recognition, malware detection, identity verification, behavioural biometrics, and document verification, just to name a few. Regardless of their choice of tools and techniques, businesses across banking, retail, telecommunications, healthcare, and services industries need to know that the person interacting with them online is who they say they are. Combating fraud with layered tools strengthens businesses' defenses. But without an intelligent approach to connecting those tools, businesses catch too many good customers (like Eva) in their fraud-mitigation nets. By bringing together different types of fraud mitigation and risk management systems on a single technology platform, fraud hubs provide a solid solution to this challenge. How do fraud hubs like CrossCore help both businesses and consumers? CrossCore brings together into a single platform best-in-class tools and services such as advanced analytics, data consortium, device recognition, endpoint malware, and bot detection, behavioural biometrics, and document verification. Experian has also been named by Gartner as a representative vendor in online fraud detection in their April 2019 Market Guide for Online Fraud Detection, for its CrossCore solution.* Our flagship identity and fraud hub connects various functionalities together in a smart, orchestrated way, leveraging machine learning-driven decisioning to deliver a single fraud decision across multiple tools and enabling businesses worldwide to improve their fraud detection capabilities. CrossCore equips businesses with the most applicable tools to combat the specific fraud threats they face in their organisation. The 100 million cumulative transactions we have run on CrossCore to date show us that while one client may need additional protection against synthetic identity fraud, another may face frequent bot attacks in their account opening application, therefore requiring different approaches. It also means that if one tool can't validate a user's identity, another system can provide evidence that this is, in fact, a real customer. It's precisely the advanced analytics underpinning data modeling what gives our clients greater confidence in their identity and fraud decisions. But let's go back to Eva. In her case, CrossCore's fraud risk engine would have fired rules when she was making a change of address, as this action elevates the potential for fraud. But CrossCore's device intelligence would have shown that Eva was logging in from a known mobile phone. She was also using her phone to type information in a way that a normal user (non-fraudster) would do. In that case, CrossCore would have asked for a step-up authentication where Eva is prompted to take a selfie for biometric authentication. Now, Eva can continue to do her banking and access her accounts as she would normally do. This is a relief as Eva checks off more moving-related tasks and can enjoy her new life in a new city. Back in the bank's fraud investigation office, Robert and his colleagues would have never seen a case for their customer, Eva. Instead, they would have been able to focus their energies on high-risk cases, mitigating any emerging fraud threats. They would have also treated Eva as the good, valued customer she is and helped ensure her business in the long run. Whether it's an automotive client in South Africa, a healthcare organisation in the U.S., an insurance company in the UK, a fintech in Australia or a bank in Brazil, CrossCore is helping to solve one of the greatest challenges in decision analytics today: identifying good customers, while reducing fraud. Download the 2019 Global Identity & Fraud Report. *Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.