Integrated Systems

Fraud data sharing

by Mark Rowe

National Business Crime Solution (NBCS), the not for profit organisation for sharing of data between law enforcement agencies and the businesses, has introduced its latest data sharing solution. Praesidio – the Latin word for protection – seeks to cover persistent offenders who commit fraud against multiple online businesses.

‘Claims’ is a rising type of crime, as unscrupulous people take advantage of the loopholes within online purchasing. For example, retailers are reporting instances of customers claiming not to have received goods; while some are falsely stating that packages have not been packed correctly and ordered items are missing or that they have returned an item (when they haven’t) and their initial payment has not been credited. Proof of concept work from NBCS, using 75,000 lines of data from six major online retailers, uncovered £3.4m of potentially fraudulent claims. One example is about £13,000 of claims a month that had cross matched based on two out of six retailers.

Online purchasing offers fraudsters a degree of anonymity due to the ability to use false or incomplete details during transactions. Praesidio gathers data from retailers that suspect fraud has been committed, and cross-references their information with claims data provided from other companies. This can then identify patterns of behaviour and can also warn other retailers of potential fraud scenarios.

The Praesidio software uses a pattern matching sequence and delivers real time alerts, while NBCS adds further intelligence from its collaborated activity data. Using known data on those committing fraud helps build resilience against repeat offenders and can contribute to any police investigations, say developers.

Heading NCBS’s Praesidio initiative is the company’s recently appointed fraud business development director, Alison Parkinson. With nearly two decades of experience within the retail sector, Alison joins NBCS from Next, where she was Next Directory loss prevention manager for over ten years. Earlier she was nine years as profit protection manager at the Home Retail Group.

Alison said: ‘Having worked in the security industry for many years, I’ve watched the growth and influence of NBCS with keen interest and admiration. As someone who fully understands the role that intelligence sharing and technology can play in the fight against online retail crime and loss prevention, I’m delighted to have an opportunity to contribute to the organisation’s future success with Praesidio, which I firmly believe plugs the gap in terms of how this very serious problem is addressed.’

Alison’s appointment and the launch of Praesidio follow six-figure UK central government funding for NBCS as part of the Home Office’s Police Transformation Fund.

Daniel Hardy, managing director at NBCS, added: ‘Alison’s work so far in developing Praesidio has been very impressive and, when we launched it at Retail Risk in Leicester on October 5, it was unanimously well received. From speaking to our members it is clear that they believe it can help counter the increasing threat of online fraud, and bring those committing this type of offence to book. Although Praesidio is currently being used in retail, it has the potential to be just as effective across the business community, as it is clear that preventing crime through the better use of intelligence sharing is the way forward for all organisations.’

Visit www.nationalbusinesscrimesolution.com.

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