Anti-fraud firm comes to UK

ID Analytics exports its database method of fraud prevention

A US firm is bringing a high-tech brand of fraud prevention to the UK after helping prevent a tidal wave of fraudsters in the US.

In the UK this year, incidents of identity theft, including credit-card fraud, have risen by 22 per cent, according to Cifas, a UK fraud-prevention service. But as the authorities get better at preventing regular transaction fraud, criminals are turning more to full-blown assumption of identities to buy goods and services.

Steven Dal, director of the US vendor, ID Analytics, said it is in talks with banks and credit providers to collect data about fraudulent incidents in a database. People's buying behaviour will be checked against this to determine the risk of them being a fraudster.

"What we've done in the US and are doing in the UK is to add a new layer of defences," Dal said.

Avivah Litan, a fraud expert at analyst Gartner, said: "ID Analytics has done a very good job of creating an identity network and has been effective in spotting identity theft and fraud for new accounts. UK banks are looking for this kind of offering."

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