ID Analytics Enhances Online Fraud Prevention Capabilities

In addition to transparently detecting suspicious use of traditional identity information such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and phone numbers, ID Score now also identifies high risk online behavior associated with email addresses, IP addresses and their geolocation.

By blending online and traditional identity information into a single risk analysis, ID Score provides unmatched accuracy in the detection of online fraud, while at the same time minimizing real-time disruptions to legitimate customer interactions. These improvements enable ID Score users to significantly lower their abandonment rates, increase the number of successful online transactions, and reduce fraud write-offs across their online channel.

With the now-pervasive use of the Internet as a core marketing and customer service channel in virtually every consumer-driven industry, online identity fraud risks have never been greater. Fraud activity within online channels continues to outpace fraud perpetrated through more traditional channels such as phone, mail and in-person. Top-tier financial services companies report that their fraud rate (fraud losses as a percentage of total revenue) for online transactions can be up to 10 times greater than the fraud rate through traditional channels. ID Score can now be used seamlessly across both online and offline channels, greatly simplifying identity fraud prevention efforts.

In 2007, ID Analytics tested the effectiveness of its online identity elements in the Online Interactions Data Study that examined more than 12 million records including applications for financial accounts and retail purchases performed online. The analysis was performed on both accepted and rejected transactions and included the fraud-related outcome of each transaction. All transactions were analyzed first using only the personal identity elements relevant to the traditional version of ID Score. Then a second analysis was performed that added the online identity elements and used the enhanced (online) version of ID Score. The analysis that incorporated online elements resulted in a fraud detection improvement of more than 27 percent over the analysis using only traditional identity information.

"By expanding the ID Network with online identity elements, ID Analytics' customers gain a broader perspective of identity risk in both the online and offline worlds," said Mason Carpenter, director, identity risk solutions at ID Analytics, Inc. "As fraud schemes become better organized and more sophisticated, ID Analytics is focused on continuously enhancing our products with new levels of protection against innovative fraud techniques, while respecting consumer privacy."

ID Score is part of the company's family of on-demand identity intelligence solutions, ranging from identity-theft prevention to innovative credit risk analytics. ID Score evaluates an individual's identity risk in real time by creating a Personal Topology(TM) of the individual's complex, interconnected identity traits, and then using Advanced Analytics(SM) to compare that representation to patterns of desirable and suspicious behaviors that have been compiled in the company's ID Network. This extensive network is the only completely secure, cross-industry compilation of identity information and contains information on 360 billion aggregated identity attributes, two million reported frauds and one billion consumer transactions.

For more information about ID Score or the Online Interactions Data Study, please visit http://www.idanalytics.com.