The technology furtively scrutinizes consumers’ typing rhythm and other device-usage habits to create a unique profile for improving detection of anomalies.

Professionals engaged in handling financial fraud often encounter various types of losses because of application fraud — with bad checks, mule activity and synthetic identities ranking among the top few  worries.

Synthetic identities can be difficult to identify because they may appear similar to consumers that are new to the country or to credit involved.

Another major concern in the fraud management landscape in the rise in consumer scam attacks. In addition to driving a significant amount of fraud, countering scams is also fraught with challenges, given that the execution of the scam requires actions performed by the true customer in order that the fraudster can profit. 

According to Stephen Topliss, Vice President (fraud and identity strategy), LexisNexis Risk Solutions: “Fraud executives are deeply concerned about increasing fraud attacks and the effect it has on consumers and their organization’s reputation when losses occur. Businesses need the most multi-dimensional view available of an identity to make high-quality decisions.”

According to Topliss, a multi-dimensional view of applicants helps fraud executives detect suspicious identities and make better decisions, especially considering that some consumer surveys have detected a drop in people using  person-to-person (P2P) payment services likely due to loss of trust.

To deal with the trend, an increasing number of organizations have begun implementing behavioral biometrics in their fraud management operations, according to a recent white paper by LexisNexis. Fraud executives polled in North America had ranked their satisfaction with behavioral biometric solutions as second only to the risk engines they used, according to the paper. Also, business respondents’ satisfaction levels with behavioral biometrics were being ranked higher than the more established approaches, including third-party identity verification, credit bureau scoring and device ownership and history verification.

As behavioral biometrics authenticates users on a passive basis and requires no active intervention by customers beyond their normal use of the app or website, customer experience is minimally affected.