Fraudsters are involved in an elaborate game of hide and seek to bypass payments companies’ fraud prevention systems to carry out their crimes. They are smart and know Companies House does not have the remit or resources to check the accuracy of information that is submitted and merely records the required information provided. This enables fraudsters to hide the fact they are connected to other companies by simply registering, for example, as Mr. J. Smith, Mr. John Smith and Mr. Jon Smith and even though the same address is used these will appear as three different, unconnected companies.
“Companies House loopholes are almost single handily driving a huge percentage of UK fraud as the fraud is hardly ever in the first company a payment provider is taking on,” Martin Pashley, chief commercial officer at Kompli-Global, said. “It is cleverly buried in a complex web of connected companies and linked directors. This is why we are launching a database that replicates Companies House data, but in an intelligent, complete and logical way that exposes potential wrongdoing.”
It is with this in mind Kompli-Global today announced the launch of Kompli-Investigate, a rich research utility, fraud prevention and detection system that allows for deeper investigation of corporate entities and the individuals connected to those organizations.
A key component of the Kompli-Investigate system is Kompli-Konnect, a corporate structure data system that has collated andreconfigured all of Companies House data since 1986. Kompli-Global linked and connected all directors, owners, companies and addresses to provide the most accurate and current entity resolution available. Furthermore, it updates all new and changed information and re-maps the entire database every night. In-house experts then overlay known fraud characteristics and suspicious modus operandi (MO) scenarios to give a totally unique risk prognosis for users, as well as alerting entities to criminal activity that fraudsters want to remain hidden.
Kompli-Investigate completes the potentially missing pieces of the fraud prevention puzzle by enabling payments and fintech companies to make connections, before conducting deep due diligence for convictions, allegations of criminality and associations to adverse events and activity. The end result is a report of the facts available in seconds so that entities spot fraudsters or investigate those companies or directors further to ensure they are legitimate and not criminally intent.
Additionally, if a newly registered company is looking to open an account, Kompli-Investigate can flag all connected businesses and individuals to that company. This added investigative tier, adds a unique predictive layer to due diligence and shows Companies that are potentially predicated to commit a crime.
“Today’s fraudsters know exactly how to work the system but Kompli-Investigate is designed to significantly enhance payment providers’ fraud prevention efforts by supplying them with the information they need to really question the business they are taking on,” Mr. Pashley said. “For example, why is this business registered at the same address as 3,000 other businesses, why is it linked to 10 other businesses with the same directors, including a number that have been disqualified and haven’t submitted accounts for years. These are red flags that otherwise wouldn’t be picked up if you cannot unravel a fraudster’s web of companies and relationships.
“Fraudsters have identified Companies House data as a weak link in the fraud prevention chain but Kompli-Investigate, in collaboration with payment providers’ existing systems, is going to change the rules of their hugely profitable game of hide and seek.”
