Elodie Collins 
Fraudsters are utilizing artificial intelligence and rapidly adapting to traditional safeguards to detect malicious transactions, making it harder for the government to keep up, Jordan Burris, head of public sector at digital identity verification provider Socure, said in an article published on Government Executive on Friday.
Burris, who shared findings from a recent roundtable discussion on evolving fraud threats in the article, explained that prevention is not just possible; it is proven to be more effective. He also identified three steps for the government to move away from its usual “pay and chase” model and prevent fraud.
How Can the Government Prevent Fraud?
According to Burris, the Department of the Treasury and oversight organizations have demonstrated that “earlier intervention, backed by better data and modern analytics, can stop improper payments upstream without slowing down services.” However, he pointed out that the government continues to incentivize post-payment recovery.
He also noted that the public sector already has access to tools to prevent fraud, but coordination responsibilities, data and intelligence are often spread across different organizations or systems, creating additional challenges.
He said the government must do three things to prevent fraud:
- Stop improper payments upstream
- Encourage data and fraud risk intelligence across agencies
- Reward agencies for “dollars never lost, not just dollars recovered”
How Is AI Shaping the Fraud Landscape?
Socure has previously warned about the potential financial impact of AI-enabled fraud rings in a report titled The Next Five Years of Fraud: We Better Get Ready Now. According to the company, fraud rings use AI to generate thousands of synthetic identities and carry out attacks within a 30-day window. In one case, fraudsters utilized nearly 25,000 synthetic identities to make over 35,000 applications.
