For years, the retail automotive sector has battled persistent fraud, impacting dealers and buyers alike. On the latest episode of CBT Now, Kanchana Sundaram, Experian’s Senior Director of Product and Innovation for Automotive, shares her extensive experience and introduces cutting-edge AI solutions to address and prevent these issues.

Key Takeaways

1. The retail automotive industry faces increasingly sophisticated fraud, exacerbated by advanced artificial technology (AI) that puts dealers, lenders, and consumers at risk. This technology enables fraudsters to exploit vulnerabilities and steal identities, targeting dealerships for high-value vehicle acquisitions.

2. Dealerships, especially small to medium-sized ones, navigate complex challenges, including high sales team turnover and the added burden of fraud prevention. Simplified, consumer-trusted solutions are essential for protecting dealers without complicating the sales process or extending transaction times.

3. AI technology offers a significant advantage in detecting fraud patterns, allowing dealers and lenders to identify suspicious activities efficiently. This proactive approach is crucial for preventing fraud before it occurs, leveraging vast data sources and analytics to safeguard transactions.

4. Effective fraud prevention in digital retailing requires robust identity verification tools, such as driver’s license scanning and selfie validation, ensuring the person engaging with the dealership owns the identity being used. Additionally, leveraging device intelligence to confirm phone number ownership enhances protection against fraudulent activities.

5. Combating fraud effectively necessitates partnerships among dealers, lenders, law enforcement, and information sources to streamline the verification process. This collaborative effort aims to minimize the need for extensive fraud detection departments, making the car buying experience enjoyable while ensuring security measures are seamless and unobtrusive to consumers.

“AI really helps dealers and lenders be able to detect patterns of fraud. And that’s really what helps us to predict where there is a potentially suspicious situation or a potential threat of fraud occurring to dealers.” – Kanchana Sundaram