According to the report, “The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) needed a fast, easy and trustworthy way to prevent fraud while verifying the identities of residents applying for aid through the HAF (Homeowner Assistance Fund) program.”
The HAF is a federally funded program administered by DEO that aims to mitigate financial hardships related to the COVID-19 pandemic by preventing homeowners from facing mortgage delinquencies, defaults, foreclosures and displacements.
The HAF also helps with issues related to home energy services, Internet, property and flood insurance, property taxes, and homeowner and condominium association fees.
In order to help protect against fraud and streamline the application process for homeowners needing assistance, the DEO worked with Socure “to automate identity verification for HAF, creating a dynamic, multilayered fraud defense that dramatically reduced friction for benefits applicants,” the report states.
More specifically, DEO implemented Socure’s identity verification platform, which offers:
- Identity and synthetic fraud defense: The software flags attempts to steal existing identities or create fake identities
- Risk scoring: Algorithms assign risk scores to phone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses to separate legitimate applicants from individuals attempting to commit fraud
- “Know Your Customer” background checks: Credit bureaus and other data sources help confirm applicants’ identities
- Document verification: Predictive algorithms use biometrics and physical documents to provide an extra layer of security
- Data consortium: Real-time insights help distinguish between proper behavior and attempts to steal or defraud
According to the report, “The DEO now processes 100 percent of HAF applicants through the Socure platform, and 95 percent of applicants are automatically approved in less than one second. The department also saw a 15-40 percent increase in customer approval rates compared to its previous identity verification providers. Automatic claim rejections have fallen below 1 percent.”
More information about the report can be found online.
*The Center for Digital Government is a division of e.Republic, the parent company of Industry Insider — Florida.
