Proof launches AI-powered fraud detection tool

Remote online notarization (RON) firm Proof has launched an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered fraud detection tool called Defend. According to the company’s announcement on Tuesday, the tool is built into the Proof platform.

The firm said it was inspired to create the tool due to a desire to stop the $81 billion in annual losses in the U.S. caused by falsified records, forged signatures and identity theft.

According to its news release, when someone buys something with a credit card, there are active fraud detection tools in place to keep both the merchant and the consumer safe from fraudulent activity. But that is not the case when someone signs a document or makes an authorization, as there is little protection against impersonation or forgery.

“These transactions carry enormous economic value but also create billions of dollars in liability for businesses when documents are falsified,” the release states.

Defend provides firms with a “risk score” for every transaction. The risk score highlights specific fraudulent issues behind each authorization, signature, notarization or identity verification. According to Proof, Defend is built to detect traditional forms of identity fraud as well as emerging methods like synthetic identities and deepfakes. 

Defend gives firms the ability to detect fraud in real time. It allows users to block or approve a transaction and set policies that automate decisions. The product also automatically sets up identity verification to meet a company’s unique business requirements for any transaction, if fraud is detected.

“We couldn’t be more excited about this game-changing technology that Proof is bringing to its platform,“ Aaron Davis, the CEO of Florida Agency Network, the state’s largest independent title agency, said in a statement. “Real estate fraud threatens the integrity of our industry. As a title agency, we sit on the front lines and we need tools like Defend to ensure that we can protect our customers’ most precious assets with the documents we collect, get signed, and notarize at the closing.“

In the future, Proof said that businesses will be able to set custom fraud policies to manage specific risks, according to their business needs.

Defend was developed in collaboration with several Fortune 100 customers and is being used by businesses in the banking, retirement, auto and real estate industries.

The feature does come at an additional cost to Proof customers.

The product is powered by AI and Proof said that when it learns of new fraudulent behaviors or attacks, “it can reduce the operational overhead of internal fraud teams by automatically remediating risks, reducing the cases that need to be manually reviewed and ultimately helping more customers securely sign with their identity.”

The AI-powered tool uses data from sources like the Proof platform, credit networks, identity databases, public records and other proprietary sources.

So far, Proof has executed more than $374 billion worth of real estate transactions, as well as billions of dollars in transactions in other industries, such as financial services and retirement.

“Electronic signatures have significantly increased convenience by eliminating paper. However, real estate transactions rely heavily on these digital documents and records, so it’s crucial that the integrity of an electronic signature can be trusted and that it’s verifiably not forged,“ Paul Hurst, chief innovation officer at First American, said in a statement.

“Defend and the Proof platform will help the real estate industry combat the rising challenges of seller fraud, deed fraud, and impersonation.“