Liz Lasher

First-party fraud refers to an applicant or customer’s intention to commit fraud, whether through use of a true, manipulated or synthetic identity. It’s difficult to define the problem and many banking professionals debate the merits of who “owns” the first-party fraud problem — the credit risk group or the fraud group. However, even as the two groups have distinct…

If, like me, you’re a parent of young children, you know the routines and priorities: feed, bathe, vaccinate, read to, save for college, and choose your toddler battles wisely. But, no matter how young or old your children may be, there’s one important task you should not neglect: freeze their credit. Why? Child identity fraud is an alarmingly large and growing pro…

With the rapid rise of data breaches around the globe, the fear of identity theft is at an all-time high. Just yesterday, I received an anxious phone call from my neighbor asking what she should do to protect herself. She is justifiably worried someone is going to open a credit card in her name. Alongside the usual advice I give — weighing the pros and cons of a credi…

Spoiler alert: If you are watching Game of Thrones (GoT), but aren't fully caught up, you may want to read this later! In the past 6-12 months, synthetic identity fraud has skyrocketed and has been one of the hottest topics in the financial crimes domain. At the same time, whether it’s Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, zombies have surged in popularity to play sta…

In this final installment of my recent video interview with Jesse Gossman - a Police Detective in South Florida, Certified Fraud Examiner, and president of the counter-fraud consulting group Bottom Line Fraud - we discuss how the culture of perceived legitimacy and legality for CPNs fuels one of the largest challenges for fighting synthetic identity fraud. Financial i…

In this continuation of my recent video interview with Jesse Gossman, — a police detective in South Florida, Certified Fraud Examiner, and president of the counter-fraud consulting group Bottom Line Fraud — we discuss how synthetic identity fraud is perpetrated, how the synthetic identities are created, and why they look so real. He shares how fraudsters game the sy…

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Jesse Gossman, a Police Detective in South Florida, Certified Fraud Examiner, and president of the counter-fraud consulting group Bottom Line Fraud to ask him, “What’s going on with synthetic identity fraud?” In this first of three videos, Jesse shares how an investigation into a case of suspected identity fraud led to…

It’s a harsh truth that while data and technology in the fraud business abound, true domain expertise is a scarce resource. Meet Andy Procter, one of FICO’s fraud specialists. Having spent much of his career on the front lines fighting fraud at Citibank, Andy is now one of FICO’s Fair Isaac Fraud Advisors, where he specializes in fighting identity-based fraud includin…

Stopping fraudsters at the front door is a priority, and layered controls are essential to stopping fraud attacks rapidly, agilely, and efficiently. Identifying fraud early requires enterprise-level vigilance and context around an individual’s behavior. Technology can facilitate bilateral sharing of intelligence, such that what you learn at point of application can in…

We are tackling an exponentially growing type of fraud - application fraud – and we recognize that machine learning analytics must be a critical part of a financial institution’s control strategy. With everyone talking about machine learning and artificial intelligence, it’s important to level-set on what these terms actually mean, and to understand how can we operat…

Want to learn why application fraud is on the rise? In this clip, I share insights into the three major drivers beyond the tremendous YoY growth rates we are seeing across the industry. With the North American chip card deployment, fraud has migrated to “paths of least resistance”. EMV has disrupted a $4 billion industry that seeks to find a new home in application…

In a recent blog post we explored the underlying concepts behind machine learning and its tremendous benefits in fighting application fraud. Since then, I had the opportunity to speak with one of FICO’s principal scientists, Derek Dempsey, who shared how AI and machine learning are solving problems in application fraud. [caption id="attachment_35901" align="alignleft…