Nottingham, UK, 10 December, 2014 - Leading price-comparison site Confused.com, has unveiled a ground-breaking agreement with Experian, the global information services company and leading provider of online fraud prevention, to safeguard consumers and tackle the growing problem of online insurance fraud.
Working with Experian, Confused.com will be the first price comparison site to provide UK insurers with real time alerts to identify high-risk and fraudulent quotations from suspicious devices. The service will initially tackle ghost-brokers*, organised fraud networks, and the related £2bn spectre of insurance fraud currently blighting the industry. The agreement will work to prevent customers’ details from being unknowingly manipulated by sophisticated fraudsters, reduce the cost of fraud and its impact on insurance premiums, and protect those people looking to take out policies from falling victim to cybercrime.
Confused.com is using Experian’s 41st Parameter** capability, with its integrated device intelligence, to provide a real time assessment of quotes posing a fraud risk. The 41st Parameter FraudNet solution has already proved highly successful in preventing online fraud for many of the world’s largest companies while providing a seamless online experience for valid customers. From April 2015, it will be in place to help insurers identify potentially suspicious devices that pose a threat of generating fraudulent quotations.
Greg Steel, Head of Compliance for Confused.com says: “Insurance fraud is a continuing problem and is estimated to cost the insurance industry in the region of £2bn a year. Aggregators such as Confused.com face a number of different threats, and ghost brokers, who are fraudsters posing as legitimate middlemen who can cut insurance costs, in particular take advantage of online platforms to find cheap premiums. Working with Experian, we will now be the first price comparison site to offer insurers an effective fraud risk score as part of the quotation service.”
Charlie Connor, Director of Experian’s Fraud and Identity business, added: “We are delighted to join forces with Confused.com to help tackle the serious and growing problem of online insurance fraud. FraudNet has proved to be a highly effective means of identifying and preventing fraud, using device intelligence as part of the fraud risk assessment of online and mobile transactions. Our work with Confused.com is evidence of our continuing commitment to protect innocent people from being the victims of increasingly sophisticated fraudsters and to reduce the cost of fraud with its impact on insurance premiums.”
-ENDS-
Contact:
Bruno Rost
PR Manager
Decision Analytics
Tel: 01159685009| Mob: 07967567012|
E: Bruno.Rost@experian.com
Note to editors:
Ghost-broking is a recognised problem amongst online insurance providers and occurs when bogus and illegal insurance advisors target insurance companies on the behalf of unknowing customers. In order to get a cheaper deal, they alter their customers’ details to reduce the costs. It’s only when the customer needs to draw upon their insurance policy when making a claim, that they discover their insurance is invalid. This is similar to quote manipulation and massaging where customers run several different quotes, deliberately changing minor details each time, in order to get a cheaper quote.
**Experian acquired the leading online fraud prevention organization, 41st Parameter, in 2013. With the introduction of FraudNet, Experian now provides comprehensive online identity verification and online fraud prevention services for insurers, financial services, banks and retailers. FraudNet prevents tens of thousands of fraud attempts every day and has already proved critical in spotting and blocking ghost-broking activities and large-scale, global fraud networks for leading insurance companies.
About Experian
We are the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to our clients around the world. We help businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. We also help people to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft. In 2014, we were named by Forbes Magazine as one of the ‘World’s Most Innovative Companies’.
We employ approximately 16,000 people in 39 countries and our corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Paulo, Brazil.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2014, was US$4.8 billion.
To find out more about our company, please visit http://www.experianplc.com or watch our documentary, ‘Inside Experian’.
About Confused.com
Confused.com was the first price comparison website in the UK. It compares a wide range of trusted household names for car insurance; home insurance; gas, electricity and other utilities; holidays and travel insurance; pet insurance; caravan insurance; and money products such as credit cards, savings and life insurance. The quotes it finds for customers are not estimates – the price you see will be the price you pay, and that is guaranteed.
In 2002, Confused.com launched the first online car insurance price comparison website, and in doing so spawned a market revolution. Confused.com flourished because it simplified the process of finding people great car insurance quotes.
Home insurance followed in 2005, and today Confused.com is the comparison site of choice for millions of online shoppers looking for all kinds of insurance - including car, home, travel, life, motorbike, van, pet and caravan to name just a few. Confused.com is also the place to find cheaper gas and electricity and great deals on a whole range of financial services, from credit cards to bank accounts and personal loans.