ID Insight President Says UK Bank Executive’s Account Takeover Likely Could Have Been Prevented
Fraudster poses as bank chairman, requests and receives credit card
NORTHFIELD, MINN. (January 15, 2008) — The chairman of the UK’s Barclays Bank has become the latest – and one of the highest-profile – victims of identity theft. But the crime likely could have been prevented, says the president of Minnesota-based fraud-prevention company ID Insight.
Last week, a fraudster posing as the chairman of Barclays, one of the largest financial services companies in the world, called the bank and requested a new credit card. As in most account takeover cases, the thief probably requested that the card be sent to an alternate address that he could easily access. The bank sent out the new card, and the thief used it to rack up almost $20,000 in charges.
According to ID Insight’s Adam Elliott, the crime could have been prevented if Barclays ran the request through Safe2Change, an analytics-based system that scrutinizes every available piece of information about customer addresses to determine the likelihood that fraud is taking place.
“If we would have analyzed Mr. Agius’s legitimate address versus the one the imposter probably used as the ‘moved to’ address, it would have likely set off some major red flags,” Elliott says. Safe2Change uses cutting-edge analytics to verify a customer’s identity, look for out-of-pattern data and known fraud activity, review neighborhood and address crime dynamics, and more.
Without the proper protection, American financial institutions are leaving themselves vulnerable to similar situations, Elliott says. According to Javelin Strategy & Research, two-thirds of credit card takeover cases are due to a fraudulent change of address. U.S. federal regulatory agencies confirmed the role of fraudulent addresses in identity theft when they finalized the FACT Act Red Flag and Address Discrepancy Rules in late 2007. Financial institutions must comply with the new rules by November 2008.
About ID Insight
ID Insight is the industry leader in assessing and managing the risks associated with addresses. Based in Northfield, Minn., the company combines its massive collection of data on people and addresses with patented analytics to help companies reduce fraud losses. ID Insight currently provides next-generation verification, authentication, and fraud solutions to financial services companies, credit issuers, retailers, online merchants and wireless providers nationwide.
Now that the FACT Act Red Flag and Address Discrepancy rules have been finalized, financial companies will soon be required to resolve customer address changes on new and existing accounts. With its proprietary address-focused analytics, ID Insight provides financial services companies with cutting-edge solutions designed to reduce costs and profitably comply with these new FACT Act requirements, all while protecting customers against identity theft.
# # #
Media Contacts:
- Brian Bellmont for ID Insight, (952) 233-0428,
