TransUnion fights fraud

Global credit management company, TransUnion, has announced the launch of a new and improved authentication service to assist the financial industry in combating fraud.

The service, TransUnion said, offered businesses more rigorous levels of customer authentication.

Recent SA Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) statistics showed approximately a 60% increase in the number of stolen identities reported in the first half of 2011 compared to a year ago.

TransUnion’s new service leverages typical personal or financial information together with “out of wallet” information, mined from a diverse set of proprietary databases, including motor vehicle, motor vehicle insurance and retail accounts.

“Consequently, it’s infinitely harder for one fraudster to collate this breadth and depth of information for the purposes of impersonation and theft,” the credit management company said.

Geoff Miller, CEO of the TransUnion Credit Bureau said that given the increased sophistication of fraudsters, the integrity of data sources were ever more vulnerable to phishing attacks and were frequently accessed by external parties wishing to impersonate actual customers.

While new communication channels supported a wide range of business benefits, they also created a greater need for organisations to verify the identity of their customers virtually, which posed identification theft threats, TransUnion said.

It identified the new communication channels as consumers engaging with call centres and virtual channels to increase credit limits, apply for new cards, change services or amend personal details.

“Implementing a more rigorous authentication process will enable you to reduce your risk of falling victim to customer impersonation,” said Miller. – I-Net Bridge