Meelo fights fraud in the automotive sector

Leasing scams and fraud in the automotive sector are major issues that Meelo tackles on a daily basis.

“The solvency of buyers and the authenticity of supporting documents are key elements in car financing files.

Maxence Pruvost, Head of Sales at Meelo, explains how our solution helps prevent fraud while significantly reducing case processing time.  

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Leasing scam and fraud: why is car financing a risky sector?

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The car financing is a sector highly targeted by fraudsters. There are a number of reasons for this. The first is that the value of the assets financed means that the scam quickly pays for itself. The second is that most automotive players now offer 100% digital paths. From the choice of model to financing, it is perfectly possible to finalize a vehicle order remotely, from your sofa. ” This makes life easier for good customers, of course, but also for scammers. ”, underlines Maxence Pruvost.

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Finally, the large number of players on the market allows fraudsters to act without attracting too much attention. In fact, they do not hesitate to file their applications in different places at the same time, thus increasing the probability of having their funding accepted.

The constitution of a financing file is a prerequisite for its acceptance. Financial institutions compile various elements to make their grant decision.

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“What is complicated for these establishments, it means having to analyze files while not being, most of the time, in direct contact with the end customer.”

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Parts are most often collected at the dealership when the vehicle is sold. The files are sent to the funding agencies as they are, without real verification. Lack of time and training, of course, but also

”Because commercial objectives in dealerships do not necessarily intersect with the challenges of securing files.”

This is even more true when the intermediary is an online sales or resale site.

The quality of the elements transmitted is therefore variable. Handling a large volume of requests manually does not make analysts' work any easier either.

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”Sometimes, depending on seasonality, a lot of cases come in all at once. Services are under time pressure”

However, eagerness never goes hand in hand with efficiency.

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”The less time you have, the more anomalies you let go, especially since, in most cases, checks are made on a sample of files or only on those that represent high value. ”

So that's when the risk of fraud is highest:

”Scammers are taking advantage of this opportunity to set up increasingly profitable scams..”

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What are the most common types of fraud?

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Document fraud

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Some people are tempted to falsifying supporting documents or to invent guarantors in order to be granted credit that they could not have obtained because of an already high debt ratio. They are from” petty scams. ”

They are difficult to detect with a simple visual check and most often fall through the trap of control sampling. The risk for the funder is the default of payment. However, counterfeiting does not mean that the customer will necessarily be a future bad payer. For him, it is just a question of not leaving the financing system for a single criterion of refusal.

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Identity theft

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THEidentity theft affects individuals as well as professionals. According to our expert,” The fraud involving the usurpation of the identity of the manager represents by itself 10% of fraudulent claims in car financing.” The risk is especially high for the person who is a victim of usurpation who is left with the deadlines of a loan that they did not take out.

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The leasing scam

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Finally, theLeasing scam, which only concerns businesses, is the favorite technique of scammers. ” It is 90% of car finance fraud cases ”, confirms Maxence Pruvost.

A well-established scenario in which fake businesses are created, using in most cases, a paid straw man to provide his identity documents and serve as a front man.

” They are real networks of scammers with very large resources. Businesses last for months, even years, with everything that is honest to deceive victims: false balance sheets, vehicle orders without payment incidents (at least initially), regular information sent to the registry office, and even real/fake websites.”

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Unfortunately, behind it, there are only empty shells that are muddying the waters. They remain dormant until the day they decide to act and disappear with one or more cars that they will never pay for. In some cases, the damage can amount to a few hundred thousand euros.

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Scams & leasing scams: what are the differences?

The scam and the leasing scam (or Leasing scam in everyday language) are both fraudulent practices, but they differ in nature and context.

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Scamming:

• Fraud is a general term that refers to fraud aimed at deceiving someone for financial or material gain. It usually involves intentional manipulation or deception.
• It can occur in a variety of contexts, whether in commercial transactions, financial investments, or buy-sell situations.
• A classic example of a scam is the Ponzi scheme, where investors are lured into false promises of high returns.

Leasing scam:

• Leasing scams are a specific form of scam that involves rental contracts, often for vehicles or equipment.
• In the context of a leasing scam, victims are often trapped by offers that are too good to be true, such as excessively low monthly payments. Once hired, they discover hidden costs, disadvantageous conditions or even that the rented property does not exist.
• Leasing scams can involve forged documents, fictional companies, or misleading contract terms.

In summary, scams are a broader term that covers fraud or deception, while leasing scams are a specific niche for scams related to rental contracts. In all cases, it is crucial to be vigilant and to check the legitimacy of the offers and the parties concerned before engaging in financial transactions.

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Meelo at the service of car financing organizations to fight fraud

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Meelo Use l'IA, theOpen Data And theOpen Banking, as well as other solutions that are among the most efficient on the market (Finovox, for example, and its software for detecting false documents), to allow organizations to car financing to focus only on cases that deserve further analysis.

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By cross-referencing data, such as contact data, the domain name of a website, the legal information of a company (balance sheets, change of management, reactivation...), Meelo verifies the identity of the applicant, the consistency and validity of the documents transmitted, as well as its solvency. Meelo assigns a trust score, accompanied by a detailed report that highlights potential areas of vigilance.

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The objective is twofold, says Maxence Pruvost:

” help auto finance organizations protect yourself against fraud and reduce the time it takes to make award decisions.”

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Meelo detects risky profiles in a few seconds

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According to Maxence Pruvost, ” The Meelo solution has two major added values:.”

The first is to create an automated and instant alert on at-risk cases. This allows analysts to focus only on those that deserve greater control and to validate those that do not pose obvious problems more quickly.

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Meelo is a reliable and advanced decision aid

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The second added value is the precision and time savings that Meelo makes it possible to bring to control. Meelo provides the tools that make it possible to carry out additional checks: existence and ownership of the bank account, for example, or the authenticity and non-alteration of the documents transmitted.

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And our expert explains this very well: “DIn the 5 or 15% of files on alert, We give the keys that make it possible to refine the verifications. All the elements are screened through a single channel.” Meelo makes it possible to detect, dig, investigate and even, in some cases,” To be the advocate for a case ”.

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Fraudsters have the largest R&D department in the world

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Meelo is constantly on the lookout for new fraud techniques to evolve its solution.

Maxence Pruvost to confirm:” Fraudsters adapt quickly. Are new controls being put in place for our customers? Scammers always find ways around them fairly quickly. That is why we are constantly improving our models. Responsiveness and adaptability are at the heart of Meelo's challenges to guarantee our users the best solution on the market..”

Several customers already trust Meelo. Among them, Capitole Finance Tofinso or Roulenloc.

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” The solution was co-built with our customers to meet their expectations as closely as possible.. Meelo is the only offer on the market able to carry out automated checks on all the elements of the file at the same time.”