Investigators say there was so much pandemic fraud in federal Covid-relief programs that — even after two years of work and hundreds of prosecutions — they’re still just getting started. The New York Times calls this “one of the largest frauds in American history, with billions of dollars stolen by thousands of people.”
During the pandemic, the government flooded the economy with trillions of dollars in relief bills, unemployment benefits, and loans to small businesses. Unfortunately, it also sent money to “farms” that were actually people’s front yards, paid out people on the government’s “Do Not Pay List”, and loaned money to people who left their names on forms as “N/A.”
The Problem
The Solution
Suspicious Payments
Red flags were raised from an unusual pattern of transactions, such as $30-50,000 payments for luxury goods using PPP loan funds or emergency aid. Fraudsters also loaded loan funds onto prepaid debit cards to pay for goods, a scheme known as debit card fraud or gift card fraud.
Transaction AI
- Get transaction monitoring driven by deep learning anomaly detection.
- Flag potentially fraudulent activity and auto-cancel based on a risk-score threshold, provided after a series of checks such as address verification, transaction size and velocity.
Compliance Failure
Money was deposited in shell companies at regional banks in high-risk jurisdictions. Government guaranteed loans from private lenders, and some fintech lenders within this program failed to screen applications using basic Know-Your-Customer and identity verification practices.
Application AI
- Provides real-time, risk assessment of applications to verify legitimate vendors and customers.
- Screens applicants for association with previous fraud, providing risk scores based on identity checks, and automating the denial of incomplete or highly risky applications.