Data helping to fight elder fraud before it occurs

D4t4 Solutions Plc (AIM: D4T4). Today marks World Elder Abuse Day, the day to educate and raise awareness about crimes against the elderly, including fraud. At Celebrus, we learn about these cases firsthand and are committed to fighting all types of fraud. In some cases, financial institutions may be the elderly's only line of defense in detecting unusual transactions and stopping fraudulent ones.

• 74% increase in elder crime from 2020 to 2021 (FBI 2021 Elder Fraud Report)
• Seniors' self-reported loss $1.7 billion dollars in 2021 (FBI 2021 Elder Fraud Report)
• Seniors least likely to report a financial crime (FTC 2021 Annual Report to Congress)

D4t4 Solutions’ Celebrus Fraud Data Platform (FDP) compiles rudimentary identity profiles of individuals based on personal identifiable information (PII) such as age, income, geography, and spending habits. The technology goes further, monitoring profiles for changes, coupling this information with advanced behavioral biometric data to detect fraudulent activities like hesitation or nervousness in the customer to complete a transaction. Armed with that information, a financial institution can pause and investigate or stop a transaction before it’s completed.

Serpil Hall, Head of Financial Crime and Fraud at D4t4 Solutions, explains why they are an easy target, “Seniors are very trustworthy. They are, generally, not very computer savvy. When you tell them you are calling from a bank with something having to do with their money, they trust the system.”

There are two types of fraud seniors face; a caregiver or family member abusing their role to take over finances or a professional fraudster posing as someone else. Hall says, “Professional fraudsters are getting more creative. They are finding new ways to capture your credit card or banking information and then take over your account. In another scam, they might get some information from social engineering and the rest is phishing. For example, they may call the person and pretend to be the bank. They ask for the person’s date of birth to confirm their identity: Now they have the missing information.”

Hall has worked with financial institutions for the past two decades on detecting and preventing fraud and says banks should be part of the solution, “Education is great, but we need something more fundamental that raises red flags.”

Celebrus FDP follows customer historical transaction data, alerting fraud systems if the typical spending amount changes or if a dormant credit card is suddenly used. Because Celebrus FDP works in true real-time, financial institutions have the ability to intervene, stopping the transaction based on the fraud alerts. “As we get older, we create routines. We shop from the same places, buy similar things to eat and so on. We create a nice routine profile and anything that deviates from this profile may indicate an account takeover, credit card fraud, or scam.”

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day was launched in 2006 by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the World Health Organization at the United Nations. If you suspect elder fraud in the U.S., call the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 833–FRAUD–11. In the U.K., call Action Fraud at 0300 123 2040.

Get more information about Celebrus FDP or Celebrus CDP, or schedule a demo.