Leading business lender Reparo uses HooYu

Identity confirmation provider HooYu has helped leading business lender Reparo Finance Limited to stop identity fraudsters in their tracks after fraudsters passed traditional identity database checks.

Reparo has recently integrated HooYu, the identity confirmation platform that combines digital footprint analysis, document authentication, facial biometrics and identity scoring to expand Reparo’s Customer Due Diligence process.

In one of the first Reparo applications that HooYu was applied to, HooYu identified a fraudster that had already passed the first layer of Customer Due Diligence where name and address data is checked against the identity verification databases from one of the main UK credit reference agencies.

The fraudster in question had stolen the identity of a UK national and had enough data to pass identity database checks and impersonate their victim. The HooYu platform flagged the loan application as a fraudster against multiple inconsistencies in the application and also alerted Reparo that they were using a forged ID document.

HooYu Marketing Director, David Pope, said “Checking databases of names and addresses is no longer the defence it used to be given the volume of data breaches and the amount of identity data that fraudsters can access.  HooYu is a new approach to identity verification that looks beyond the name and address to examine and cross-reference an identity against multiple sources using a customer’s digital footprint and their identity documentation in addition to traditional static identity databases.”

Sharon Bryden, Operations Director at Reparo said, “Just because a customer’s name and address has matched to a traditional credit reference agency database doesn’t mean that a customer is who they say they are. HooYu is a great tool for us in fraud prevention and this first fraud that HooYu has identified shows how much more powerful this is than traditional AML/KYC checks. Many lenders now offer an end-to-end online process where the customers are not met face-to-face and HooYu is key to preventing dealing with fraudulent applications.”

HooYu was established as a global identity verification platform to help businesses to authenticate customer identity.  The HooYu service is integrated into a merchant’s site and customers are asked to take three simple steps: take a selfie, share their online identity such as Facebook or LinkedIn and take a photo of their driving licence, ID card or passport. HooYu then extracts and scores identity information from the user’s online identity and ID documents, authenticates their ID document and completes a biometric facial verification.