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Experian has warned that current accounts can be a ‘front door for fraudsters’, as the company’s new ID Fraud Tracker reveals current account fraud is now nearly triple what it was two years ago, while credit card fraud has more than doubled within the same period. In both cases, the increase has been driven by fraudsters using stolen personal details of genuine individuals to attempt to open current accounts or apply for credit cards. Nick Mothershaw, fraud expert from Experian, explained:“A lot of people may see the news about current account fraud and think that it’s not as bad as having their card details stolen. But it is…in fact it could be an Achilles’ heel when it comes to their identity. Current account fraud not only presents an immediate threat of emptying someone’s overdraft facilities, but can act as a front door for fraudsters to access a wide range of financial products, including credit cards. “Current accounts and cards are tightly linked, and it’s no surprise that card fraud has grown alongside the rise in current account fraud. We urge people to be vigilant about activity on their account. “We all have a role to play in keeping our identities safe, and we’re encouraging everybody to do their bit. Even something as simple as making sure you regularly check your electronic statements can help to identify fraudulent activity before it escalates into something much worse.” More misery for ‘generation rent’ Private renters who live in shared accommodation in young urban neighbourhoods, aged 26 to 35 (known as ‘Rental Hubs’), continue to be the biggest targets for fraudsters – 18.4 per cent of all victims. However, fraudsters are particularly increasing their focus on those ‘transient renters’, mainly 18 to 25 years old, who tend to share private low-cost housing and are most likely to move more regularly. They saw the biggest rise in fraud over the last 12 months and now account for 7.1% of all fraud victims, compared to 4.9 per cent last year. Mothershaw said:“People who live in rented homes need to know that fraud is a very real and, sadly, growing danger for them in particular. What makes them easy targets for fraudsters is the fact that many share accommodation and also move regularly - within one or two years. Unless they are regularly monitoring all their credit applications, it is likely to be a while before they realise they have become victims. They are also high users of smart phones and social media, so they really are prime targets.” Experian’s new ID Fraud Tracker is a quarterly analysis of fraud rates across a variety of consumer financial products, from cards and current accounts to mortgages and car insurance. Current account fraud between April and June this year reached 128 fraudulent applications in every 10,000 applications - the fifth consecutive quarter it has exceeded 100 in every 10,000 applications. The rate of fraud in card applications reached 48 in every 10,000 applications during the same period. The analysis dates back to Q3 2013, when rates of current account and card fraud were at 48 and 21 in every 10,000 applications respectively. Experian offers some proactive steps people can take against fraud: Online passwords: There’s nothing more attractive for ID thieves than someone who uses the same password across multiple online accounts. It is crucial to have unique, secure passwords for each online account. People should consider the strength of their password; always use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols and – where possible – change them regularly. Security First: Be conscious of the information you share when using shared Wi-Fi networks. Public networks and open Wi-Fi hotspots can be compromised more easily by fraudsters than secure networks. Be cautious of the information you share on your social profiles such as your email address, date of birth and all other personal information that could be easily traced. Passcode protect: A lot of personal information is stored on devices that are not password protected. That’s emails, apps, messages – a vast amount of information that could be a goldmine for fraudsters if the device is lost or stolen. People should always lock their mobile device, whether it is with a passcode or a gesture, to prevent access to such information, should the worse happen. Check the post: Whilst e-banking is becoming increasingly popular, receiving unexpected, irrelevant mail, could be a warning sign of ID fraud - particularly mail that is outside of the usual purchasing sphere. Shred and destroy any documents that contain sensitive, personal details. And if you move house, make sure you re-direct your post and register to vote at your new address. Be credit wise: Being credit smart and checking your credit report to see if credit has been applied for under false pretenses, you can get a better handle on whether personal information has fallen into the wrong hands. Web monitoring tools are also useful as they scour the web for stolen details – sending people an instant notification if their information appears somewhere new online.

Serasa today launches a new service that allows Brazilian consumers to check their credit reports online for free. By visiting serasaconsumidor.com.br or by downloading the SerasaConsumidor App on Google Play or iTunes, consumers can check if they are delinquent, what led them to this status and whether it relates to bank, credit card, financial, retail, utilities, protested securities, checks without funds or lawsuits checks. Consumers will also have information about lenders, such as telephones, address, email and website as well as the value of the debt and repayment date for the delayed debt. Additionally, the consumer can renegotiate the debt directly, without intermediaries, if the company is a partner of Serasa’s free service Limpa Nome Online. People can make a free online inquiry as often as they would like. To participate in the free online program, consumers must access serasaconsumidor.com.br and fill out a registration or enter an email address and password if already registered. The service is also available on mobile Apps Android and iOS. To properly verify the user accessing the information in Serasa, after the registration, the consumer must go through an authentication process. One of the steps is to enter the mobile number and confirm the validation code received via SMS. This validation is required only on the first access. For the director of SerasaConsumidor, Fernanda Monnerat, this new service presents the opportunity for consumers to easily and safely check the existence debts in a single digital environment. "It's another tool that we provide to Brazilians so they can have access to services that make possible, above all, their financial citizenship and ability to build a more sustainable relationship with the credit. Therefore, we reaffirm once again the commitment of Serasa with the consumer,” said Monnerat. Among other free services available on the SerasaConsumidor website, consumers can opt-in to the positive data initiative, which gathers information on the consumer’s payment history, measures their payment timeliness of debts and evaluates the risk of debt distress. Through the program, it is also possible to make a document alert and stolen checks alert. Free registration in Serasa helps to reduce risk of fraud and to avoid the challenges of having personal information used by scammers. Also on the website, users will find guidelines and tests on financial education on the newly launched page www.serasaconsumidor.com.br/organizar-financas.

Who doesn’t love a new car? That new car smell, the excitement of seeing less than 8 miles on the odometer, or the invigorating rush you feel when driving your new baby off the lot. There is nothing like it!

The Fourth of July is a special day to celebrate our independence and to show off American pride with parades, fireworks and barbecues spent with friends and family. In the spirit of this season, Experian Automotive recently conducted some research that looked at the vehicles on U.S. roads to see how many were manufactured in America or that were “Born in the USA.” According to our latest research, there are roughly 260 million light-duty vehicles on the road, with nearly 60 percent of them having been assembled domestically. The rest were built in Canada, Japan, Mexico, Germany, South Korea and others countries. From a manufacturer standpoint, it is not surprising that Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had the highest percentage of U.S.-made vehicles currently on the road at 81.2 percent, 70.1 percent and 63.1 percent, respectively. However, Honda (61.9 percent) and Nissan (54.7 percent) also made the top five. In fact, many of the top import manufacturers hover around the 50 percent mark, including Mitsubishi (49.9 percent), Toyota (48.2 percent) and Subaru (47 percent) assembling vehicles in the USA. When looking at vehicle brands, the findings show that, overall, Jeep is the most American with 96.7 percent of its vehicles assembled in the USA. Rounding out the top five were Oldsmobile, Saturn, Ford and Cadillac, with 93.3 percent, 92.4 percent, 83.1 percent and 80.6 percent, respectively. In addition, nearly 93 percent of Ford F150s, the most popular model on the road, were built domestically. The remainder of the top five vehicle models assembled domestically are Honda Accord (88.3 percent), Toyota Camry (86.9 percent), Nissan Altima (100 percent) and Ford Explorer (100 percent). The analysis also looked at domestically assembled models that were most often financed with a loan rather than with a lease or paid for with cash. At the top of the list, the Ford F-150 was the most popular vehicle that was financed with a loan with 69.9 percent, followed by Nissan Altima, Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Ford Explorer. For more information about this analysis or Experian Automotive insights, visit https://www.experian.com/automotive.

Experian was included in Forrester’s 2016 “Vendor Landscape: Mobile Fraud Management Solutions” report as having the 90 percent of capabilities and one of the highest estimated revenues in total fraud management.

Experian unveiled the fraud and identity industry’s first open platform designed to catch fraud faster, improve compliance and enhance the customer experience.

Experian, the global information services company, has identified five key factors currently making people and organisations more vulnerable to large-scale cyber fraud. Speaking at the renowned Merchant Risk Council EU Congress on May 19th in Seville, Spain, Experian’s Global Identity and Fraud Director, Hugh Steed, shared his insights with nearly 500 eCommerce fraud and payments professionals. A wealth of stolen data available to fraudsters. Wholesale data theft is one of the fastest growing crimes facing people and organisations today, with hundreds of millions of digital identities compromised every year. Fraudsters are increasingly targeting on-line credentials over previously preferred data, such as credit cards. The exponential growth of malware. After data breaches, malware is the criminal’s key method of obtaining digital identities. From mobile applications to traditional desktop platforms, malware manifests itself in many different forms and its volume is ever increasing. Fraudsters are targeting both end users and enterprises to acquire these valuable credentials for use in sophisticated frauds. The frequent username and password reuse by consumers. Experian’s research revealed that the majority of internet users consistently use a small set of usernames and passwords to secure multiple different accounts; including social media, email and online shopping sites. More specifically, people have on average up to 26 online accounts protected by only five different passwords. This greatly increases the risk that fraudsters can use data stolen from one source to successfully access other accounts held by the same user. An increase of multi-channel interaction between customers and business. People now have access to multiple digital and physical channels, enabling them to interact with businesses, manage accounts and make transactions. However, this diverse channel environment also facilitates the work of cyber criminals as each open channel is an opportunity to commit fraud and securing these channels is a significant challenge for enterprises. The trade-off between security and user experience. As companies consider the necessary steps required to increase online account security, they are conscious that they cannot risk adversely affecting the customer experience. Customers making transactions online today expect a seamless journey and are likely to be put off by onerous visible security procedures. Hugh commented: "Experian’s research shows that fraud today is often a complex cycle that starts with data theft and proceeds through a set of discrete staging points, ending with a fraudulent transaction. “Rather than being instantaneous, the fraud process can span weeks or even months often with different criminal organisations involved and data changing hands. However, the very nature of this cycle means that there are systems that can be implemented to detect and stop such fraud early and before it causes losses that are significant in scale. To put things into context, for a handful of our largest customers alone, we have helped them detect and prevent fraud worth over $500 million dollars.” Felipe Fernandez-Atela, President of Experian in Spain, said: "Protecting people and businesses from the threat of fraud is one of our main goals. In fact, companies using our fraud prevention solutions consistently outperform the industry benchmarks in areas such as ‘decline rates’ and ‘fraud rate by order’ – both of which are typically 15 times below the industry average. We have the expertise, both in our products, services and skills of our people to help ensure society is more protected against this type of crime.”

Adam Fingersh, senior vice president and general manager of Experian’s fraud and identity business, shared several fraud prevention strategies that businesses and consumers can use to manage risk and increase security while using Internet-enabled products, also known as the Internet of Things (IoT).

Emad Georgy, global CTO of Experian Marketing Services, explains how marketers can enhance customer journey to attain success in their business.