Royal Mail introduces new fraud tool

Royal Mail has launched a new data service to provide companies with extra insight to help them to tackle identity fraud even more effectively. NCOA Alert helps flag to businesses potentially suspicious activity at the point of an application for a product or service.

The NCOA Alert file is built using Royal Mail’s national change of address insight from three years of pending, live, cancelled, and expired Redirections as well as Multiple Residency data from the Postcode Address File.

Available from credit reference agencies and other financial intermediaries who provide fraud prevention systems, NCOA Alert can be used by companies to indicate different types of suspicious activity, including: previous occupier fraud – where someone impersonates an individual at an old address or attempts to take over an old account; application fraud – where a genuine person’s identity is stolen and a fraudster has attempted to divert their mail; and mail interception fraud – where more than one person may have access to mail boxes or shared hallways

The launch of NCOA Alert, comes as the National Fraud Authority estimated that identity fraud costs the UK over £2.7bn per year.

Keith Jones, head of data strategy at Royal Mail, said: “We have designed NCOA Alert to work hand-in-hand with existing fraud screening systems, to add an extra layer of protection for UK businesses and consumers alike.

“NCOA Alert is intended to protect the consumer without compromising their privacy rights and provides an extra layer of defence to help businesses in the financial, insurance and retail sectors reduce the costs associated with fraudulent activity.

“Often, ID thieves have constructed a thorough fake identity using a genuine person’s details – accessing the physical post is the last piece of the puzzle. NCOA Alert provides companies with the information to stop the fraudster in their tracks and further extends the protection consumers receive from their Redirection service.”