This photo of a quaint village was taken on a recent trip to Meteora, Greece. This small town evolved into a thriving community by using a multi-pronged approach to survival, by leveraging traditional methods and also integrating current technology.
This community serves as a reminder of how we need to also adopt this same approach in counter fraud; that is, to look at multiple perspectives and angles as part of our strategy. There are many strategies that counter fraud professionals can utilize to help assess the legitimacy of a policy or claim; and as I always recommend, please use a multi-pronged approach to fraud detection.
Technological tools can be used as the first line of defense to help identify high risk customers at the onboarding process and at the loss report stage. Companies can strive to prevent high risk individuals from entering their “books” in the first place, or detect fraud during the loss report process. This will serve to filter policies and claims that have a high potential for fraud. These tech tools can also be used as a safety net and as a backup for primary detection methods, serving to ensure that a company is well protected.
In addition, companies should also consider more “traditional” strategies such as methods to detect untruthful behavior using interview tactics and techniques. Psychological interview methods have been deemed credible for many years and these approaches should not be ignored. There are verbal clues that are provided in all conversations and leveraging this fact in counter fraud can be extremely useful at revealing untruthful responses. Companies that use strategies to dig past what is seen on the surface are well on their way to a concrete counter fraud approach.
Stay safe!
Dr. Fraud