Why Is Fraud Prevention Important?

Fraud continues to pose a major threat to both the UK and International economies and individual businesses. As criminals become more imaginative in their attempts to steal customers’ money, now more than ever businesses must have the correct measure in place to prevent large scale fraudulent activity. In the 2020 Global Economic Crime Survey, a monumental $42,000,000,000 was reported as fraud losses, with a yearly average of 6 fraud events per year.  

 In most companies, the true cost of fraud is not known as it is identified after the fraud has occurred or is never discovered by the business. Fraud Prevention helps organisations safeguard intellectual property, save money, and avoid reputational damage.  Preventing likely fraudulent customers upfront from being onboarded combined with the continuous screening of all customers to identify any changes in circumstance, arms business with the intelligence they need to protect themselves and prevent fraud recurrence.  

 In the UK alone, PwC reported 56% of respondents and 47% of businesses has experienced fraud in the last 24 months, and 28% cited cybercrime as the most disruptive type of fraud. Only 56% investigated the worst fraud incident.  

Taking simple, proactive steps to protect your business can dramatically decrease the risk of fraud from disrupting normal business activity and impacting profitability.

So Where Do W2 Come In?

Through the W2 API, four main services can aid in the fight against fraudulent activity. Email risk assessment allows the email address provided by the user to be scanned against a vast fraud database and return alerts based on the risk associated with that address.   

The address lookup service (or website widget) gives access to a global standardised database of addresses that prevent errors from minor address changes that users make.  

Age verification tools are also available to ensure compliance with retail regulations and ensure that the person purchasing is the required age to do so.  

Mortality screening ensures that fraud is minimised and protects your business from deceased profiles being used to hide the true identity of fraudsters.  

Despite fraud being a legitimate and seemingly complex issue to solve, W2 has an array of services available to prevent fraud before it happens and allow businesses to continue to onboard customers safely. These solutions are truly customisable and can be adapted to fit a business’ specific needs.  

If you or your business would like to know more about Fraud Prevention or any W2 products, contact us on hello@W2globaldata.com 

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