Interview Jean Paul Gagnon: expert in documentary fraud

In this interview, Jean Paul Gagnon discusses the state of document fraud, particularly in the insurance industry, and the means to fight it.

Who are you ?

I am a consultant and independent trainer in document fraud and security. Formerly a gendarme, I was trained by the criminal research institute of the national gendarmerie. I work with companies that face fraud, particularly documentary fraud. I train their employees in the detection of false identity documents (ID cards, French and foreign passports, various documents), to secure their customer relations by improving their authentication (KYC) in order to fight against fraud.

I am referenced in the training catalogue of the Agency for the Fight against Insurance Fraud. I provide training for anti-fraud correspondents of insurance companies and mutual insurance companies as well as to ALFA certified private investigators.

I also work with several publishers of document fraud detection solutions.

I have trained teams of Remote Identity Verification Providers (RIVP) as part of their ANSSI certification process and I am assisting one of them in its certification process.

🎧 Listen to our interview with Maxence Bizien, general director of ALFA, by clicking here!

What is the main problem you identify in fraud today?

The explosion of document fraud has several explanations:

• Our world has gone digital. However, usage has moved much faster than the training and security that should have accompanied it simultaneously.
• Electronic document management is becoming widespread. It makes it easier to distribute documents in the company and facilitates archiving, but its technology has its disadvantages when it comes to document investigation, in particular because EDM generally overwrites the metadata of digitized documents and complicates certain consistency checks on documents that are subject to doubt.
• As far as identity and travel documents are concerned, while designers are striving to produce increasingly sophisticated documents, including dynamic security features whose technologies are not accessible to fraudsters, digitization annihilates most of these security features by offering a static image whose poor quality sometimes makes checks ineffective. It is therefore essential to succeed in developing solutions that enable both computer analysis and visual analysis in order to have effective and efficient controls.
• The increase in digitalization also has the effect of closely linking document fraud and cyber-malware. Forced to use tools that they do not master, many users have not been educated in "digital hygiene". They are unaware of the growing risks of identity theft and are vulnerable to attacks on their computers and smartphones. That's why companies like ID Protect have decided to fight against this plague.

How is the document fraud growing today?

Document fraud is growing at an unprecedented rate. It is omnipresent. As Charles Prats said in his book Le Cartel des Fraudes : "Document fraud is the mother of all frauds." The vast majority of frauds use a forged document to claim an identity or justify an undue right. Increasingly easy access to digital tools for transforming images or PDFs makes fraud accessible to more people. Social networks also offer temptations through the distribution of low-cost "kits" (in appearance), which are not without danger for their users because they can lead to the disclosure of personal data to carry out the fraud.

It is very difficult to quantify because it is hidden by definition. This is why the figures are always the subject of great battles. Uncovered fraud is only a small part of the real fraud. Draw a parallel with the fight against drug trafficking and you get a picture of the problem. Identity theft is estimated at 400,000 per year, but that number only represents those that are discovered or reported.

The quality of forged documents has increased for the reasons I have just explained, and "naked eye" detection is becoming increasingly difficult. The explosion in the number of successful phishing attacks also demonstrates this.

What are the best ways to protect against document fraud today?

To prevent document fraud, it is necessary to generalize controls as far upstream as possible. It is important to train and equip ourselves to fight against fraud without only carrying out random controls.

The fight against fraud is a wall built of several bricks. No single solution covers the entire phenomenon. The technologies developed by the anti-fraud solution editors are increasingly powerful, making it possible to augment human capacities. The right combination seems to me to be "Human assisted" because nothing can replace experience, intelligence and the human interpretation of the machine's results.

The word of the Fin'Équipe :

It is essential to protect yourself against fraud. Training and the use of tools are complementary.

Document fraud is today a fundamental issue that we must work on and tackle with the different actors involved.

‍To learn more about Finovox’s tools to combat document fraud, contact one of our experts!