The lack of fraud prevention is a very serious and
growing problem. Protecting your company against fraud requires constant
vigilance. Every company needs some sort of fraud prevention tools to monitor
the many types of potentially fraudulent customers. One potential problem is a
Politically Exposed Person commonly referred to as PEP, which can present a
serious fraud risk. The definition of PEP can vary among different countries,
but they generally include people who serve a prominent public function or
their relatives and close associates. PEP may also be classified as those
convicted of money laundering or even known terrorists.
In addition to protecting
yourself against fraud, there are government relations, which require reporting
suspicious activities by PEP. This would necessitate a suspicious activity
report, which must be sent to the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network(FINCEN). Failure to follow these guidelines can lead to serious
fines. The process of performing due diligence to uncover
PEPs can be time consuming and requires screening against a reputable
database of known PEPs. These databases usually contain about 1 million
profiles. In order to verify identity, each profile will include a picture, the
persons age, social security number (for U.S. citizens) and other information.
Checking all this detail obviously involves a considerable amount of time.
The increased amount of international crime thanks
to advances in communications and other business technology make protecting
yourself against PEPs even more important than ever before. The only practical
method of fraud prevention is to use an electronic verification system. There
is really no other way to keep up with the constantly changing problems. Even
if you arent concerned with the possibility of unintentionally doing business
with terrorists, any government official or associate is a serious potential fraud
risk.
EVS
has been at the forefront of this increasingly important concern and offers
some of the finest PEP list screening available. With IndentiFraud Consumer, corporations can seamlessly protect themselves
against the fraud potential of PEPs. EVS uses a variety of data points to
create Advanced Residence Verification and History. This allows the
business to confirm a customers current residence and their 12 previous
locations. Products like residence verification and phone verification will set
your business up with state-of-the-art fraud protection to combat the risk
associated with PEPs.
[Contributed by EVS Marketing]
