Fraud Prevention Checklist: What To Watch Out For In Automotive Sales

In the automotive industry, single instances of fraud can amount to tens of thousands of dollars in losses even if the car is recovered. That said, the best way to minimize fraud losses is to prevent fraud from occurring in the first place.

To do this, businesses and dealerships must take preventative measures to combat both in-person and online fraud. Here is a checklist to help you catch fraud before it’s too late and save money:

Ongoing Anti-Fraud Training to Employees

Having an ongoing anti-fraud training program for your employees is a great way to stay on top of fraud prevention changes and active company fraud practices:

• Is there a fraud training program in place for new hires?
• Do employees understand what constitutes fraud?
• Do employees have a comprehensive understanding of the common risk factors in the automotive industry?
• Do employees know what protocol to follow when a potential fraud case is identified?

Common Forms of Fraud in Automotive Sales

Knowing common forms of fraud can play a major part in preventing them from happening in the first place. Employees must know how to identify these common types of fraud:

• Synthetic Fraud – Uses fake personally identifiable information to apply for new credit, loans, etc. to get good and services, such as cars.
• True Identity Fraud – Uses stolen identity documents (SSN, IDs, Birth Certificates, etc.) to claim to be another person with better credit and take out a loan in their name.
• Document Fraud – Happens when someone falsifies information, like inflating their income, providing false information about their employment, or claiming a second income in order to get better credit or a loan.
• Stack Loans – When a buyer has a lot of loans out at once, usually without an intent on paying them back

Fraud Risk Assessments

Knowing who and why some customers are a high fraud risk client can help your dealership prevent it from happening. Here are some of the common indicators of high risk buyers:

• Customers links to high-risk countries
• Customers belonging to the high-risk business industry
• Unusual account activity
• Lack of lawful or obvious economic purpose
• The customer is a Politically Exposed Person (PEP) or a relative of PEP
• Accounts of businesses with cash-intensive activities such as bullion dealers, real estate developers and jewelers, etc.

Strong and Effective Anti-Fraud Controls

There are lots of resources to help protect your business from fraud, the proper software and tools should be included in your banking partner and your dealership’s checklist.

• Risk Analysis Software – generates a Know Your Customer risk rating which is a straightforward and simple calculation of risk
• Mobile Facial Recognition Tools – Uses smartphones and biometric software technology to verify a person’s identity by analyzing their unique facial features
• ID Authentication Software – Since the automotive industry is particularly vulnerable to identity fraud, this fraud prevention tool can authenticate customers’ IDs with 99% accuracy in real-time

Intellicheck

Intellicheck provides great anti-fraud controls to help make you feel more comfortable with all in-person and online transactions. Intellicheck is easy to integrate into your existing point-of-sale systems, so you won’t have to overhaul the system that is already in place. It is simple to use which will save the dealership time and headaches. Most importantly, Intellicheck reduces the risk of missed fraudsters and helps prevent fraud from happening.