Fraud detection is a precious resource to have in today’s world. The amount of fraud that occurs every second is insurmountable and often leaves people unaware and vulnerable to the dangers that lurk within being a technologically dependent society. Those who commit fraud take full advantage of the technological changes that potentially places personal information at risk for identity fraud, through banking and other online services. In the U.S alone, credit card fraud comprised of 16.8% of all identity theft fraud in 2017 making fraud detection services imperative to protect citizen’s livelihood—the reality of identity fraud is fighting for everyone, because there’s no guarantee any information is completely secure from hackers. However, with the abundance of hackers, there are also numerous fraud detection services available to provide some of the top security options around, such as account takeover protection and bank account verification software.
Why Is Identity Fraud A Growing Issue?
Even though groundbreaking technological enhancements to protect citizens from fraud, there are loopholes in the software of which hackers are aware. In banking, especially, fraud detection is relied on because of the number of stolen credit cards, forging checks, and suspicious account activity that occurs every second. The primary reason fraud detection isn’t always guaranteed is due mainly in part to hacker’s level of intelligence; their ability to breach a system can’t be precisely measured, making it nearly impossible to determine if a company’s level of security is enough to protect clients until it’s too late. One of the largest breaches occurred as recent as 2017, when the Equifax suffered a breach exposing sensitive information of 145 million people, including Social Security numbers. Because there are countless methods of fraud, it’s harder to pinpoint the hacker’s exact location.
How Can Fraud Detection Help?
Although there are countless methods of fraud, various services have begun to arise in hopes of decreasing fraudulent activity. Early prevention of fraud protection services allows companies to understand the specific phenomena that typically occurs before security breaches, such as data mining that predicts patterns in millions of transactions. Other methods that are commonly used by large corporations and banks include electronic check verification and identity verification service powered by AML technology which allows customers to feel safe; nearly 66% of consumers appreciate security protocols when doing transactions online because they feel their security is a priority. The additional level of protection fraud detection can help a company attract business, because of their promise to security solutions against breaching. Through using extensive fraud detection solutions such as decision trees, machine learning, cluster analysis, and neural networks, companies invest in preventative measures that can estimate the probability of fraud down to the exact dollar amount.
Tips On Preventing Fraud
1. Spread out accounting duties is an essential factor when attempting to prevent your company from being susceptible to fraud. The sheer amount of work an accounting department is responsible for makes it easy for important documents to be lost or misplaced; having one or two people operate all accounting functions may not be ideal for a large company. Be sure to assign employees to a designated function to make operations run smoother. When cases of fraud appear, it should be significantly easier to detect and resolve.
2. Getting to know your employees is also an essential part of effectively avoiding potential fraud. Be sure human resources performs a thorough background check and observe interactions and work performance. Specifically, if an employee works in the accounting department, scrutiny should be placed into their behaviors and actions; research has shown an employee who is most endeared by their coworkers are more likely to complete fraud as they’re unsuspecting and appear trustworthy.
3. Reviewing business bank accounts can provide an accurate overview of your finances. Online banking options now make the process far more accessible to manage when viewing account activity and reviewing statements to be sure there are no suspicious charges. For large companies and small businesses alike, reviewing should be done frequently to ensure paper statements have not been manipulated or otherwise.
5. Auditing the books regularly is one of the original methods of fraud detection. Ensure all transactions and purchases are accounted for with accurate amounts, such as refunds, product returns, inventory management, and accounting functions.