Once an identity has been stolen, in nearly four out of ten cases, the perpetrators try to buy a household appliance through financing. In 15% of cases, they target cars and motorcycles, along with furniture, construction materials and consumer electronics. Those fighting fraud are in a race against time. There are two main categories: on the one hand around 70% of cases are discovered within a year, but on the other, cases of fraud committed three, four or even five years before continue to emerge (around 16% of the total).
Looking at the fraud discovery times in relation to the financed amounts obtained fraudulently, it can be seen that fraud for lower amounts is discovered quicker than more substantial purchases/loans. The latter are clearly obtained using more sophisticated fraud schemes, leading to longer discovery times.
For example, credit fraud of amounts greater than 10,000 euros are discovered in the first 6 months in just 36% of cases, compared to 20% of the total uncovered after more than 5 years.
Another 11% of cases are linked to personal loans, an area of fraud that has grown by 40%.
"More and more people and companies are becoming part of the digital world, and these criminals are becoming specialized in online fraud," noted Beatrice Rubini, Director of CRIF's Mister Credit.
“As the credit market develops, as has been the case for several years in the commercial world, demand through non-traditional channels is increasing exponentially. The direct consequence is that the relationship between the financial institution and the customer is carried out at a distance during the identification and credit disbursement phases. In this new context, fraud prevention is another challenge which is constantly evolving,” added Roberta Cadoni, Business Consultant at the CRIF Fraud Prevention & Compliance Solutions competence center. “Given the central role of controls on personal data and documents submitted by the credit applicant, it is important to check the origins of the requests to avoid cases of 'serial fraud' devised at the hands of international organizations and originating, for example, from the same mobile device (tablet or smartphone).”
