Socure Launches Industry's Preeminent First-Party Fraud Solution and Consortium, Joined by Founding Members SoFi, Green Dot, Varo, Ingo, Dave and Public, amongst others
Identity Verification Leader Takes Consortium Approach with Strategic Partners to Eliminate Elusive First-Party Fraud and Help Save Financial Institutions and Merchants Billions
October 23, 2023 -- Socure, the leading provider of digital identity verification and fraud solutions, today introduced its first-party fraud solution, Sigma First-Party Fraud, powered by the concurrent launch of its First-Party Fraud Consortium (FPFC). The first-of-its-kind consortium is unifying companies to tackle the complicated, multi-industry issue of first-party fraud by pooling data and insights, which allow its partners to detect and prevent fraud before it takes hold.
Socure's front-row seat to the majority of new fintech and financial services application volume and its tight strategic relationships spanning over 1,800 customers, including 4 of the top 5 financial institutions, 9 of the top 12 card issuers, nearly every major consumer fintech, the largest BNPL provider, the largest HR/payroll service, the largest online gaming operator, the largest delivery marketplace and 4 of the top 5 state governments, puts the company in a unique position to successfully deliver the consortium-based, first-party fraud solution that the market and its partners are demanding.
The consortium's founding members include many of the nation's largest digital banks and fintechs, including SoFi, Green Dot, Varo, Ingo, Dave and Public, amongst others, totaling over 50 million active accounts across the consortium at launch. Additionally, the consortium is actively working with many of the category defining players to provide insights into account activity – both positive and elevated risk – to quickly add more than 200 million additional active accounts to the network making it the largest of its kind in the industry.
First-party fraud is committed by individuals who use their own identity to perpetrate dishonest acts for financial gain. The use of their own identities—with accurate credentials—makes first-party fraud much harder to prevent than identity fraud associated with stolen, manipulated or fabricated synthetic identities. These fraudsters are succeeding to the tune of billions of dollars, with annual first-party fraud losses in the U.S. alone totaling more than $100 billion, according to Socure's research.
Detecting and preventing first-party fraud requires rapid analysis of alternative data signals that aren't tracked in traditional credit reports to discern patterns of fraudulent, deceitful behavior over time and across multiple platforms. In fraud prevention, large data networks are essential, and the industry must work together to solve this rapidly growing problem.
"First-party fraud can be hard to spot and even seem accidental in many cases—which has invited fraudsters to take advantage of this confusion to the tune of billions of dollars each year," said Johnny Ayers, founder and CEO of Socure. "With over 40% of fraudsters planning to commit first-party fraud again less than 60 days after their first fraudulent event—and generally facing zero repercussions from law enforcement—it's no wonder we've seen overwhelming demand for the consortium solution like we are launching today. First-party fraud not only unnecessarily drives up costs of goods for the average consumer, but can also quickly escalate to involve money mules, many of which funnel money directly to larger criminal organizations. We designed the industry's first holistic first-party fraud solution with many of our strategic partners to break down data silos and bring together top industry players to thwart repeat first-party fraud abusers in their tracks."
On average, 45% of FPFC members have overlapping consumer bases, making collaborative data sharing all the more valuable to identify fraudulent behavioral patterns that may have otherwise been mistaken as legitimate if not for the identification of repeat first-party fraud abusers across providers. Socure's first-party fraud solution analyzes data from the FPFC in addition to risk indicators derived from the company's Socure Risk Insights Network—which sees feedback data from 1,800+ customers across the digital economy. Socure also draws on more than 400 databases of cross-industry ID data, totaling hundreds of millions of transactions across geographies and companies of all sizes to provide best-in-class identity matching across the Socure FPFC to stop fraud before it spreads.
"At SoFi, our core values are built on a foundation of safety and trust with integrity acting as the driving force behind all that we do," said Aaron James Webster, Chief Risk Officer, Global Head of Operations, and Latin America at SoFi. "Our decision to join Socure in founding the FPFC underscores these commitments as we take a critical step toward bridging an industry-wide gap by uniting critical non-credit data from leading financial institutions. Ultimately, the impact of these efforts will extend beyond minimizing identity fraud – the initiative will also improve the consumer experience by reducing friction and accelerating the next wave of identity safety across the industry."
By expanding industry-wide knowledge around how consumers behave across different financial ecosystems, the Socure FPFC will help financial institutions, merchants, investment platforms, gaming and sports betting, telcos and payment processors accurately identify first-party fraud risk at new account opening, time of transaction and during the dispute resolution process. In tandem with Socure's Sigma First-Party Fraud solution, customers can convert more trustworthy customers, reduce charge-offs and chargeback losses, eliminate manual processes and friction, speed onboarding, reduce customer abandonment, and enhance identity verification accuracy and trust throughout customer ecosystems.
To learn more about Sigma First-Party Fraud and the First-Party Fraud Consortium, visit Socure's website.
To download Socure's report, Socure Risk Insights: Defining and Solving the Elusive Challenge of First-Party Fraud, click here.
About Socure
Socure is the leading platform for digital identity verification and trust. Its predictive analytics platform applies artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques with trusted online/offline data intelligence from physical government-issued documents as well as email, phone, address, IP, device, velocity, date of birth, SSN, and the broader internet to verify identities in real-time. The company has more than 1,800 customers across the financial services, government, gaming, healthcare, telecom, and e-commerce industries, including four of the top five banks, 13 of the top 15 card issuers, the top three MSBs, the top payroll provider, the top credit bureau, the top online gaming operator, the top Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) providers, and over 400 of the largest fintechs. Marquee customers include Chime, SoFi, Robinhood, Gusto, Public, Poshmark, Stash, DraftKings, the State of California, and Florida's Homeowner Assistance Fund. Socure customers have become investors in the company, including Citi Ventures, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, Capital One Ventures, MVB Bank, and Synchrony. Additional investors include Accel, T. Rowe Price, Bain Capital Ventures, Tiger Global, Commerce Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Sorenson, Flint Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, and others.
