Identity fraud in SMEs: take early action to protect your business

Identity fraud in SMEs: take early action to protect your business

Data from Action Fraud shows that British businesses reported £88m of insider deception in 2017/18 – double the previous year – with the average loss rising to £62,000. Whilst financial fraud is a risk to every business of any size, SMEs certainly shouldn’t believe it won’t happen to them just because they are employing fewer staff or working within a smaller network. Identity fraud amongst employees presents a very real risk to SMEs. In fact, according to ActionFraud, 1 in 5 small businesses have been defrauded by an employee.Fraudsters can think of small businesses as easy pickings because, in general, they…read more >
Validating identity documents is step one in a secure process

Validating identity documents is step one in a secure process

There are many reasons that businesses today need to confirm the identity of the people they employ or work with. This guest blog is from Darren Harding who is the on-boarding manager at our customer Boomerang Funding. They check ID documents as part of a Right to Work check and to ensure that only legitimate applicants are given access to rail infrastructure projects through the Sentinel Card scheme... “In our experience, most people that we deal with are genuine, but fraudsters are clever and can easily gain access to large amounts of data to help make what they are claiming…read more >
Is your recruitment agency protected against fraudulent identity documents used for Right to Work?

Is your recruitment agency protected against fraudulent identity documents used for Right to Work?

As a diligent Recruiter, you no doubt have a process in place for making Right to Work checks and you’re probably well aware of the risks of employing illegal workers. But the first step in any Right to Work process is to ensure that the documents you’re seeing are genuine. And that's really not an easy task, with countless different identity documents issued globally and many thousands of fraudulent ones in circulation. Our identity validation technology helps our customers check hundreds of thousands of identity documents annually and we regularly analyse our customer data to highlight trends across industries and…read more >
Our view of fraudulent identity documents in 2018

Our view of fraudulent identity documents in 2018

If you follow our blog, you’ll know that at TrustID, we’re really keen on gathering and analysing data around document checks, including trends across different industries and fraudulent document types. With another year of data captured, in this blog, we summarise our annual findings for 2018 and compare them with trends from 2017. In 2018, the number of businesses relying on our checking services has continued to grow significantly, across both the public and private sectors. In this blog, we’ll look at data from our customers in the private sector. What sort of fake documents did they find? In 2018,…read more >
Document verification systems – 5 reasons why they’re best for finding fake identity documents

Document verification systems – 5 reasons why they’re best for finding fake identity documents

The scale of identity fraud is shocking and shows no sign of slowing. Criminal networks are becoming increasingly sophisticated to the point that even security experts can’t rely on traditional visual methods of detection, such as magnifying glasses and ultra violet light sources.Since most public and private institutions don’t employ a resident Identity Fraud Expert, the best way to confidently stay one step ahead of fraudsters is to have access to the most up-to-the-minute technology and data at your fingertips. This role is now filled by identity document validation technology. The UK Government’s guide on document validation software and hardware states that electronic scanning “provides a quick and easy…read more >
Why do we need to do pre-employment immigration checks on UK or EU recruits?

Why do we need to do pre-employment immigration checks on UK or EU recruits?

As you probably know, every employer has a legal duty to prevent illegal working and is required to undertake pre-employment immigration checks on all staff to ensure that they have the right to work in the UK. But if your recruits claim to be British or EU nations, do you really need to make Right to Work checks?Employers could face prosecution if they deliberately ignore the law and employ someone who does not have the right to work in the UK or if they have ‘reasonable cause to believe’ that they are working illegally. Penalties can include fines of up…read more >
Why introduce electronic identity document checks if you don’t have to?

Why introduce electronic identity document checks if you don’t have to?

We work with two main types of business: those that have to introduce some form of identity validation technology - due to enforced compliance requirements - and those who choose to introduce it – perhaps because they are worried about making checks in the face of high staff turnover or fall into a ‘high-risk’ sector. No matter which pool your organisation falls into, you can benefit from electronic identity scanning, not just to drive compliance and find fraudulent documents, but in ways that you may not expect…Must doWe have implemented identity validation technology at over 100 locum agencies recruiting medical staff the NHS. They…read more >
Smarter identity checks to satisfy ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) requirements

Smarter identity checks to satisfy ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) requirements

Let’s say you work in a 'B2C' finance environment, such as a Pawnbroker, and a smart young man walks into your premises, wanting to do business with you. You’ve never met him before but he’s presentable, professional and seems like a nice chap. Don’t be fooled! It’s critical to satisfy yourself that he is who he says he is. Do you have a simple way to do that? And how can you reduce the risk of doing business with a fraudster?As you probably know, anti-money laundering (AML) regulations state that your first step should be to perform an appropriate level…read more >
ID scanning system thwarts fraud attempt

ID scanning system thwarts fraud attempt

Fluent Money, the UK’s largest secured loan distributor, recently thwarted an attempt by a fraudster to obtain a loan using a fake driving licence thanks to electronic ID verification.In this blog, we talk to Tim Wheeldon, COO, and Stuart Almond, Group Compliance Director at Fluent Money about why they introduced ID scanning technology and how it works in their business.Can you tell us more about Fluent Money?Tim Wheeldon (TW): “Fluent Money is the UK’s largest secured loan distributor working through intermediaries and selected partnerships. We were one of the first businesses in our sector to be fully authorised by the…read more >
A case of fraud in the insurance sector

A case of fraud in the insurance sector

Fraud is such a pervasive crime with each industry susceptible to different types of fraud schemes and few more so than Insurance companies, particularly due to the advent of online policies.In this second guest blog, Jill Battley CFE, a Director of TrustID with extensive investigative fraud experience, shares a summary of a genuine fraud case in the insurance sector, exploring the background, the risks, the result and what steps could be taken to prevent it.The Importance of Being “Ernest”Mr Ernest Brown applies for an online policy, answers all the questions, passes the relevant checks and is issued with a policy…read more >