SPSS - News Room

News Release

December, 2008

Companies defenceless against fraud ambush

~ over a quarter of businesses are unprepared to battle increasing levels of crime ~

Companies are unprepared to face the onslaught of fraud, which is predicted to rise due to the current economic downturn. According to a Vanson Bourne survey, 27 per cent of business respondents say they are not ready for an increase in fraud.

The survey, conducted on behalf of SPSS UK, the leading provider of Predictive Analytics software and solutions, also found that 30 per cent of businesses questioned believe themselves unable to cope with current levels of fraud, casting further doubt on how they will survive the impending challenge. In addition, only 3 per cent of them indicated that minimising losses arising from fraudulent behaviour is being prioritised as an internal project in the current market conditions.

“It’s concerning that companies are still unprepared and unfocused to tackle customer fraud. Whatever industry a business is in, there are always new threats on the horizon,” commented Haydn Lewis, Vice-President EMEA at SPSS. “Traditionally recessions are hotbeds for fraud, as people are pushed to their financial limits.

SPSS offers the top five tips below to help businesses protect and safeguard against fraud.

SPSS’ top five tips for fraud prevention:

Integrate fraud prevention strategies into front office systems - for example, online checks for e-retailers and claim handlers in the insurance industry
Catch it before it happens, by using software technology that can uncover new and emerging fraud. For example, ING doubled the amount of fraudulent claims detected by implementing a self- learning model for fraud predictions
Analyse, model and score as many data sources as possible, including customer actions, attributes and attitudes. This helps to build a complete view of a customer, determining if they are likely to commit fraudulent acts
Implement sophisticated technology to analyse and predict customer behaviour. Human intuition can ignore or overlook details that today’s Predictive Analytics software would flag – and computers don’t fall victim to sob stories
Look out for a pattern – fraud is often committed by the same people, in the same place and in the same way