Fraud Report: The Rise of Document Fraud in France

Regulated institutions in France are facing their biggest threat yet from financial fraud. Fraudulent application activity in France was four times higher than the rest of Europe in the first quarter of this year.  And for the first time in any country, the use of fake ID documents has overtaken identity fraud in France as criminals employ increasingly sophisticated methods to trick the system.

“With advances in technology, organizations are having to work even harder to fight financial crime.,” says Ro Paddock, Head of Anti-Financial Crime (AFC) at Fourthline in Amsterdam. “The French market is notoriously fraudulent - there are a lot of sophisticated syndicates that operate there, and this means their crimes are particularly hard to detect.”

With an explosion in both the rate of activity and the range of methods deployed, organizations operating in France are under increasing pressure to reevaluate their Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures. They must satisfy themselves that they are making an accurate assessment of the growing threats and putting in place the necessary measures to prevent these counterfeits from entering the system.

What are the key risks for organizations in the identity authentication process? Why is France a target for financial crime? What are other European countries doing that affords them more protection? How can organizations step up their anti-fraud practices and technologies to mitigate these risks? We answer these questions and more in our French Fraud report.

Are you seeking expert guidance on how to best authenticate identity documents during KYC onboarding? We can help. Contact us at info@fourthline.com or visit www.fourthline.com for more information.